Nachos

Oh tasty nachos, they are based on a type of food formula I love to make and eat: ingredient layering. This same formula can also be found in waffles, ice cream sundaes, hobo pies, lasagna, you get the idea. I usually find myself eating nachos during a pub happy hour, or perhaps when Lauren makes her chili nachos, but I rarely find myself making nachos myself. If I am craving a taco inspired meal, I usually fall back on my favorites: taco salad, stuffed quesadillas, or tortilla soup (a hidden benefit of all these is they are very inexpensive meals).

On a recent ski trip to Mammoth, we made taco salad, and after having it a couple nights, ended up taking all the leftover ingredients and making nachos for the Super Bowl. A couple nights ago we made tortilla soup, and again found we had some leftover ingredients, which were perfect for whipping up a batch of nachos. Moral of the story? Make up a dinner of your favorite mexican theme, and instead of having leftovers of the same dish for a week, save ingredients to make nachos later in the week.

Nachos are an incredibly flexible dish. They can be made with any toppings you choose, or you have on-hand. They can be made single serving or for a crowd. It takes minimal preparation, and is incredibly affordable. Plus, your nachos will taste so much better than the local pub! The recipe below is merely a guideline, feel free to experiment and add different types of fresh ingredients you have on hand. I would recommend keeping it simple though, so you don't end up with soggy nachos.

What's in it

Tortilla chips or totopos (homemade tortilla chips)

cooked chicken (perhaps leftover from enchiladas or tortilla soup)

cooked ground beef

can black, kidney or refried beans

can jalapenos

can chile

chopped fresh vegetables - bell pepper, chile, onion, green onion, tomato, olives

grated cheese (I recommend colby jack)

sour cream or mexican table cream

lime

avocado or guacamole

salsa

chopped cilantro

tapatio or hot sauce

get crazy - pineapple, cooked squash or potato, peaches, grilled shrimp...

How it's made

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet or oven proof plate/platter with foil (for easy clean up). Make totopos (using Alexis' recipe linked above) or use ready made tortilla chips. Layer about a third of your tortilla chips on your pan/plate. sprinkle cheese on top and a few other ingredients like meat and beans. Layer half remaining chips and sprinkle with more cheese and half remaining ingredients (but not salsa, avocado, cream, cilantro, lime). Layer rest of chips, sprinkle cheese, add remaining ingredients (except salsa, avocado...) then top with remaining cheese. Put in oven and bake until cheese is melted and veggies are at least warm, if not broiled a bit. Turn up the heat if need be. It will probably take 7-10 minutes.

Remove from oven and top with remaining fresh ingredients.

Pictured above: (made from leftover tortilla soup) totopos, colby jack, chopped tomato, chopped green onion, shredded cooked chicken, sour cream, avocado.

Pictured below: (made from leftover taco salad) tortilla chips, cheese, olives, salsa, sour cream, avocado, bell pepper, cilantro, green onion, black beans.

Rustic Veggie Melt

The other day I needed a quick dinner and I ended up with a delightful meal worth posting.

My sister works at New Seasons and is able to bring home a lot of produce for free. When ever something is dropped or bruised or on the verge of going bad they set it aside. It's from this group of veggies she can pick some for us to enjoy at home. She brought home a lot of squash, peppers and onions which she chopped and roasted. I walked in when the veggies were coming out of the oven, which drastically reduced my overall cooking time, but it's still easy. Here are the instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Rinse and chop various veggies, in this case we had green and yellow squash, red and green bell peppers, yellow onions and whole cloves of garlic. Toss veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper. You can add fresh herbs too. We had thyme, rosemary, and oregano. Roast in glass baking dish until all veggies are cooked through and starting to brown, tossing at least once. Remove from oven and set aside to cool slightly.

Increase oven to Broil.

Cut thick slices of sourdough and lay them on a flat cookie sheet, covered in foil if you like foil.
Scoop some of the roasted veggie mixture onto each slice of bread and spread it to the edges. Sprinkle with fresh chopped basil or other herb if you have it. Then layer some jack or mozzarella cheese over the top. Place in the oven on middle rack and watch until the cheese just starts to bubble and the edges of the bread are toasty. Remove from the oven and seve immediately.

I didn't have the energy to make a whole salad to go with this so you can see I just tossed some avocado pieces with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Total time with roasting veggies is about 1 hour (most of which you are sitting while veggies cook)
Total time with pre-roasted veggies is about 10 minutes. If you pre-roast veggies they can be stored in the frig for a few days and you can have this meal for an easy lunch or brunch with an egg on top.

Enjoy!

Avocado, Bell Pepper and Caramelized Onion Tuna Melts

What happens when you try to use whatever you have in your pantry...

• 4 slices of bread
• 4 slices of cheese (we had cheddar)
• 2 cans of tuna
• Mayonnaise and mustard to taste
• 1 stock of celery, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
  
• 1/4 of a white onion, sliced into long strips
• 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• Balsamic vinegar (optional)
  
• 1 avocado, in thin slices
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

1. Heat olive oil in a small saute pan to medium-low (around 4), add sliced onion and bell pepper. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir every once in awhile to make sure the mixture is cooking evenly. I added a splash of balsamic vinegar near the end. It's done when everything is soft and the onions turn a caramel color.
2. Prepare tuna salad to your preference. We used a little mayo, some Sierra Nevada Porter mustard, salt, pepper and chopped celery.
3. Heat a griddle (on about 3) and start toasting all four slices of bread. Flip the bread to toast other side and immediately add two cheese slices to two slices of the bread. Spread the tuna mixture over the other two slices. When the cheese has melted, remove both sides from the griddle.
4. Spread the onion and bell pepper mixture over the tuna. Top with sliced avocado. Add a little more mustard to the cheese side and place on top.

* These are big sandwiches! We only had regular small bread and wished we had something a little bigger to hold all of the ingredients.