Nachos!

I'm not sure if I've ever made nachos before. The premise is pretty simple, cover tortilla chips with grated cheese and heat until the cheese melts. But I've always preferred the chips that have way too much stuff on top, sort of like my overstuffed burritos, so just chips and cheese isn't going to cut it. Then there is the consideration that tortilla chips are the best calorie-per-dollar food you can get, which doesn't put them in such a good light in terms of healthiness. I wanted something goopy and cheesy and warm, though; its been a rough week and weekend. I experimented with making some oven-toasted corn tortillas, and those worked well as chips - no deep-frying necessary. And then I loaded up an entire dinner's worth of food on top of those, with a ton of cheese, and voila! nachos. Alex-style.


Nachos, Alex-style
Made enough for definitely more than one Alex

~1/3lb ground beef
3 tbs Alton Brown's taco seasoning
1 red onion
1 clove garlic
some spinach
6 corn tortillas
1 can black beans
1/2 block of cheddar
1/2 avocado
1 jalapeno
~1/4C salsa
~1/4C olives (kalamata in this case)

Preheat your oven to 400F. Meanwhile, set a pan on your stove, and turn it up to medium-ish. Dump in the beef (I used ground sirloin, and it was durn tasty). Add the garlic, half the onion, and the taco seasoning. Let that cook away, stirring occasionally to break up the beef.

Take your six tortillas, stack them, and cut them into wedges. I cut each into eight wedges. Spread them on an ungreased baking sheet, and bake for ~10 minutes. Take them out when they're crispy and just browning around the edges.

Once your beef is done, add the beans, stir that around for some flavor, and put it all in a bowl. Dump the spinach (maybe two handfuls) into the pan, and stir that around until it wilts thoroughly.

Grate the cheese.

Put your "chips" into a smaller baking dish, so that they're a bit overlapping. Sprinkle on the rest of the onion, the chopped jalapeno, and the olives, and cover with a couple spoonfuls of salsa. Cover that with the spinach, and some (probably about a third) of the beef/bean mixture. Put the grated cheese all over that. Put the entire concoction back into the oven, for another 10 minutes or so.

Dice the avocado. I only ended up using half of it, but the whole thing would have been scrumptious, as would have been some cilantro. Alas.

When the cheese is melted and a little brown on top, your nachos are done. You can eat them straight out of the pan, or attempt to transfer them to a plate. Sprinkle with the diced avocado, and enjoy!

Yes, this is how I like my tortilla chips - loaded. Also, yes, I was eating dinner in front of my computer. This is not a rare happenstance, unfortunately...