Taco Salad - MN Style

We recently bid adieu to the husband of a Fearless Foodie. It is both sad and exciting at the same time - and it also provided an opportunity to cook (of course)! I made a Taco Salad that my mother and aunts make for summertime parties back home in MN. I say it's MN style, but maybe it's not as regional as I think. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it!

The portions used make enough for Brett and I to enjoy this for lunch plus a snack for him. Granted, this is one of his all-time favorites, so he eats A LOT of it. Everything really is "to taste", so feel free to experiment. It seems to change everytime I make it.

Basic Ingredients
Lettuce - I like romaine for this
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 bottle of low-fat french/catalina-style dressing
1 1/2 packages low-sodium taco seasoning
Shredded cheddar cheese
Tortilla chips

Fancy Ingredients - not required, just nice to add
Sliced black olives
Corn
Black beans
Tomatoes - chopped
Chopped onions

Directions
1 - Place ground turkey in a skillet, add 1/2 package of taco seasoning, fully cook the turkey while breaking it up into smaller pieces. When cooked through, drain and rinse with cold water.
2 - Wash and chop lettuce, place in large bowl.
3 - Add cheese to bowl and mix with lettuce.
4 - Gently crush tortilla chips in the bag (we actually save the last bits of our tortilla chip bags for this purpose - stale chips are not a problem for the salad), remove the chips from the bag (don't pour it directly on the salad because you'll get a ton of unneccessary salt) and place them in the bowl with the lettuce and cheese. Mix.
5 - Add the remaining taco seasoning to the bowl and mix.
6 - Add the cooled ground turkey to the bowl... and mix.
7 - Pour about 1/2 of the bottle of salad dressing into the bowl and... you guessed it, mix thoroughly. I often resort to using my hands at this point because it becomes a bit unruly/messy.
8 - Taste and adjust ingredients as necessary. I often find that I may need to adjust the basic ingredients, but it is not often that I adjust the fancy ingredients.

Note: This is not really good left over because the lettuce and tortilla chips will wilt and become soggy. Brett is a freak of nature and is happy to eat it the next day although sometimes he adds fresh chips.