Pasta Taco Salad

 

 From one of my new favorite cookbooks!!

 

Pasta Taco Salad

3 cups rotini pasta, uncooked

1 lb ground beef

1 1/4 oz pkg taco seasoning mix

7 cups lettuce, torn

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 cups nacho-flavored tortilla chips, crushed

Dressing:

1 1/4 cup mayonnaise

3 T milk

3 3/4 tsp cider vinegar

3 3/4 tsp sugar

1 TBSP dry mustard

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse in cold water.

Meanwhile, brown beef in a skillet; drain.

Add Taco Seasoning and cook according to pkg directions.

Mix all dressing ingredients together. 

Stir until combined and dressing is smooth and creamy.

 

In a large bowl, combine pasta, beef and dressing. 

Toss until coated.

 

The recipe says:

Add lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. 

Toss to combine.

Sprinkle with tortilla chips.

 Now, this is where I did things a little different than the recipe...

I put the lettuce on the plate first, 

instead of adding it to the pasta and beef mixture. 

I knew by looking at it, we would have left overs and we didn't want wilted lettuce when we reheated it. 

We also added the cheese on top of the pasta and beef mixture. 

Some of us like more or less cheese than the other.

This way, we can add the amount of cheese that we prefer. 

Also....one more thing....because we normally add Salsa, 

I omitted the tomatoes!

The hubby and son also added sour cream.

 Very tasty!
The dressing really adds the flavor to this recipe! 
We loved it!!