Make it: Individual nachos

So, when I mentioned that nachos were on this week’s menu, I probably should have clarified what kind of nachos I meant. Considering that the menu also includes burgers, pizza, and French toast sticks, it might appear that my “healthy” eating plan consists mainly of grade-school cafeteria foods. But Eric and I were not, in fact, planning to have the awesomely bad kind of nachos that you see in stadiums — you know, the kind with the super-thick round chips and the orange cheese that is one part glue and two parts scraps from the floor of the Kraft Singles factory. We did, in fact, have these legit homemade nachos inspired by an idea I saw in Martha Stewart magazine. The idea was to make little personalized nacho piles instead of one massive pile of chips and toppings, which is a total Why didn’t I think of that? kind of thing.

Eric made ours using a pound of beef that he browned and seasoned with taco seasoning, a can of low-sodium black beans, Organic Valley pepper jack cheese (which I seriously love), and tortilla chips, plus diced avocado, salsa, and sour cream for toppings. To make these for yourself, just preheat the oven to 350 and then make small individual piles of tortilla chips on a cookie sheet. (We ended up with 16 piles, and two piles was one serving.) Layer a little cheese on each one and then spoon a little of the beef and beans onto the chips and cheese. Bake for about six minutes until the cheese melts and the chips are warm. Then top with whatever toppings you like and eat!

This was seriously such a great meal. First of all, I had forgotten how easy and delicious homemade nachos are. Second, I love how you can easily put one or two piles in individual Ziploc bags and then remove them later on to reheat in the microwave; two makes for a great lunch, and one makes for a really legit snack. I also love that that the cheese is more evenly distributed among the chips because we all know that the cheeseless chips when you’re eating loaded nachos are not a good thing. And mainly, I like the fact that we’ve eliminated the whole “Let’s all eat from a common pile of nachos!” thing because I really, really do not like to share food.