Individual Mexican Dips "To Go"

 

 

In a previous post, I showed how to make my Mexican "Bull's-eye" Dip. It is fabulous for parties and feeds a large crowd pretty inexpensively. And, it always gets rave reviews!

Here is what that version looks like:

I decided to try making that recipe on a smaller scale for the hubby and kids for their lunches ... to grab on the way out the door. They are not quite as eye-catching as the large "bull's-eye" one above, but all the components are there!

Ingredient List:

• Refried Beans
• Taco Seasoning
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• Sour Cream
• Lettuce
• Onion
• Black Olives
• Tomato
• Corn or Tortilla Chips (for dipping)

Open up a can of your favorite refried beans. (For the large party version, I use two cans. Using one can yielded 4 individual servings in small plastic containers.) Dump the beans into a medium saucepan and stir in one package of taco seasoning. Add a 1/2 cup of water, stir well to combine and heat until mixture appears to be loose enough to spread ... a few minutes.

NOTE: You can add 1/4 of a pound of cooked ground beef or ground turkey to the bean mixture if you don't have any vegetarians to worry about! My twenty-year old is a vegetarian, so I've almost always made this with no meat products.

Next, divide the bean mixture into 4 little containers.  Allow to cool.

Then, spread a layer of sour cream (a couple of teaspoons into each) onto bean mixture.

Decide what toppings you'd like to use. We prefer shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, sliced black olives, some form of red, white or green onion finely chopped and some seeded, diced tomato.

Layer the toppings on top of the beans and sour cream. Lid and send them on-the-go with pre-portioned baggies of corn chips or tortilla chips for dipping. These will keep in the fridge for a few days.