Taco salad

Couldn't decide what to have for dinner tonight.  I wanted soup, perfect day for it, but didn't have the chance to look up a recipe before we went out to run errands and buy a few groceries.  Ended up deciding on taco salad.  One fatal flaw in my plan is that Target doesn't sell tomatoes (at least I didn't see any) which I figured was ok since I had salsa at home, except that I didn't.  The taco salad really could have used some tomatoes or salsa on it but it was still good.  This is also the recipe I use for taco meat when we have tacos.

Taco Salad
serves 4


For the meat:
 modified from Joy of Cooking
2 Tbsp. veg. oil
1/2 medium red onion, minced (I usually leave this out since I don't have them on hand)
1 lb ground beef
1-3 cloves garlic, minced (I use 3)
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. ground coriander
dash of salt
1 c tomato sauce

Heat the oil in a medium skillet until hot and add the onion.  Cook stirring often until softened.  Add the meat and cook until no longer pink.  Stir in the garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, and salt.  Cook and stir for 30 seconds then add the tomato sauce.  Cook, stirring occasionally over low heat for 10 minutes.

Rest of the salad:
chopped/shredded lettuce
sliced green onion
1 tomato, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
shredded cheese, cheddar or Monterey Jack
tortilla chips (we used the Tostitos Crispy Rounds)

Layer in a bowl, starting with the chips on the bottom, then lettuce, meat, cheese and the rest of the toppings.