Hey Dip ... it's for your chips!

I wish I could say that I thunk this one up but I daren't lie about something as holy as cooking lest the food-gods find some way to punish me from their golden-kitchens atop the summit of Recipe Mountain.

So even though I didn't create this, I am glad that I found it. Heather found some really good restaurant quality tortilla chips by Mission foods. So I took up the challenge to find some extra good chip dip of the same quality with which to surprise my wife. I know that she loves a good dip ... hence her sticking with me ... and so I turned to my best nerd-tool, Google. I found this recipe which we certainly believe is a keeper and well-compliments the chips. No it's not healthy as all get-out .. ok, it's not healthy at all I imagine but oh-so-very-nummy-nummy that you can just eat it up. Actually this is what had for dinner last night. If you like chip-dip, give this a whirl, it's very easy to make.

Beefy Taco Chip Dip

Serves 16

Ingredients:
1 pkg 8 oz of Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup of sour cream
3/4 cup of mayonnaise
1 pound of ground beef
1 pkg of taco seasoning
1 can (8 0z) of tomato sauce
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese or taco cheese
4 cups of shredded lettuce
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 medium green pepper, diced

tortilla chips

Directions:
In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, sour cream and mayo until smooth. Spread into a 12 to 14" pizza pan or serving dish. Put in fridge for 1 hour.

In a saucepan, cook the beef, then drain. Add taco seasoning and tomato sauce; cook and stir for 5 mins. Let cool completely. Spread over the cream cheese layer and put it all back in the fridge.

Just before serving, sprinkle with cheese lettuce tomatoes, onion and green pepper. Serve with chips.

Notes and things I did differently:
I skipped the green peppers. I like them but I like jalapenos better. So I used diced jalapenos. Additionally before serving I warmed all this up in the oven, about an hour on 170 degrees cause we were busy doing other things. After an hour it was ready to just mix all together, pour some portions into little serving bowls and serve with a generous side of chips. We like our chip-dip (well this one anyway) warm - kinda like how you make haystacks - and this was really really good warmed up for serving. Though I'm sure tis great cold too. That's for lunch today.