Nachos!!!!
I LOVE nachos. I bet not many people know this about me because I never order them when I go to restaurants.
That is because I am a control freak when it comes to my nachos. I want to know what's in them.
When I was newly divorced and living on my own for the first time (in a very tiny apartment with a miniscule kitchen), I bet I ate nachos for dinner at least 3 nights a week. Horrified? Don't be.
Don't get hung up thinking about nachos the way they usually exist in bars and restaurants. Not that there's anything wrong with them, but they don't always have to be a huge pile of greasy chips covered in mushy refried beans and tons of chemical cheese.
I have always considered nachos to be a quick, easy way to use up bits of leftovers in my ice box. The format is completely interchangeable. The combination of toppings is as vast as your imagination- and if you're anything like me- your imagination is limitless!
Today's combo included tortilla chips, diced plum tomatoes, leftover grilled chicken from last night's fajitas, fresh mushrooms and the grated remains of 2 teeny weeny little knobs of Dubliner and Cotswald cheese I had in the ice box. I topped the nachos with the leftover home made salsa from the fajitas, as well as a few dollops of sour cream. I nuked them for about 1 min. 30 seconds. Then I sat down and ate lunch with my fingers. Excellent!
I have made nachos out of just about everything: shrimp, goat cheese, cabbage, smoked salmon (using melba toasts instead of tortilla chips), you name it, you can make nachos out of it. Really, as long as you have a cheese component, some veggies and some sort of protein, you have nachos. Sometimes I use the crumbs in the bottom of the bag of tortilla chips to make a kind of layered nachos that I have to eat with a fork. Instead of arranging whole chips on a plate, I dump the crumbs in the bottom of a bowl, pile the toppings on, nuke it, then mix it up and eat it with a fork.
This is the ultimate leftover user upper, as well as the ultimate lazy dinner!!
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