A whole lotta heaven in a bowl! This salad has been a go to favorite for our family when it comes to large functions. You can make it as large or as small as you need and it’s always a crowd pleaser.

Ingredients

1 head of lettuce
1 tomato
1 small onion
1 lb ground beef
1 bag of Fritoes
1 can black beans or ranch style beans
1 cup shredded cheese of choice
1 bottle Catalina salad dressing

Directions

Brown your ground beef and season with salt, pepper, garlic, and greek seasoning if you use it. I always season a bit heavy because of the amount of the rest of the ingredients. After the meat has browned, drain the grease. (If you want to be healthier, rinse it wih hot hot water.) Set the meat aside to cool.

Dice tomato and onion and put into a large bowl. (LARGE BOWL lol) Drain and rinse your beans and pour into bowl. I usually use Ranch Style beans but this time we used black beans because we couldn’t find the other… I like the black bean better!  Crush your Fritoes. The easiest way I’ve found is to open the bag and place it inside of a gallon ziploc bag. Seal out all of the air and beat the heck out of the bag. The amount of crushing can be to preference, but I like mine CRUSHED.

Pour your chips onto your mountain in the bowl.  Add your meat to the bowl along with the cheese. Stir everything up really well at this point.

To me, the worst thing you can do to this salad at this point is just dump the dressing on willy nilly. If you take a bite right now, you’ll find that it’s heaven just like it is. The dressing adds a zing to the flavor that is well worth the addition. I begin by making a couple of circles around the bowl. Mix and taste. Some people like the salad with more dressing than others. So here is where it’s truly up to your taste buds to make the call.

On sizing the salad for your family, it’s really easy to make some minor adjustments to suit any size of gathering. I usually make the most adjustment in the amount of lettuce. My REASON here is because I love all the other fixings too much to cut back! But if you want to keep it proportionate, for a smaller salad cut the meat, chips, lettuce, and cheese. Choose a small tomato and small onion. The beans you can just eyeball or add them.

Of course, if you’re wanting it larger…. just double up on everything except the meat to keep costs down!