Football season is finally upon us!  John and I (and the rest of my family) have been anxiously anticipating this since we knew the NFL had reached a deal with the players.  I couldn't wait to get into football again!  This is the first year my entire family (boyfriends included) will be playing fantasy football against each other.  I can't wait to see how I do!  Since this weekend will be the first game of the regular season (GO GIANTS!), we thought it would be fun to celebrate with a great new appetizer, sure to satisfy even the hungriest football player.

We love nachos in our family, but doesn't every nacho dish have the same problem?  Everyone grabs the best loaded nachos, and then by the end you are just left with plain old tortilla chips.  BORING.  Even when we try our best to load up each layer of nachos, you are still inevitably left with some chips.  So I came up with the next best thing; half dip, half nachos, every chip gets the opportunity to be loaded up! 

I know that, lately, appetizers have really taken a backseat in the kitchen for me.  But every year football changes all that!  It's always been a family tradition to watch the games on Sunday and it's no exception in my house when we literally keep the games on all day.   I just wish I had the time to sit and watch them all!  Football just screams for awesome finger foods!  In the meantime, check out some of my favorite football recipes on the lefthand side of the blog!

Serves:  4

2 cups ground turkey

1 cup black beans (from a can)

2 tablespoons taco seasoning

1 cup salsa

1 cup guacamole

1 cup mexican-style shredded cheese

3 cups tortilla chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large greased skillet, cook ground turkey until browned throughout.  Transfer to a glass loaf pan, and combine ground turkey, black beans, and taco seasoning.  On top, layer one layer of salsa, one layer of guacamole, and one layer of cheese.  Bake 15 minutes in the pre-heated oven.  Stick chips into the dip before serving, and have extra chips on the side, for extra dippers!

Hope you all enjoy this weekend!  I am looking forward to finally unpacking the apartment; John will be attempting to continue normal life with crutches this week, so I will also have the apartment to myself!  Now there is NO excuse to still be in boxes by Monday!