Nachos!

You won't miss meat with these.

We've been making nachos a lot lately. Like, at least once a week, sometimes more. It started when my roommate and I bought a $5 bag of chips from Costco for our Halloween party (if you've never purchased chips from Costco,  it's two huge bags of tortilla chips in one, for something like 5 pounds of chips). We went through about half of one bag during the party and since they were there we just ate the rest. Actually, I began making nachos when I was home alone and one night made them for both of us. Rich loved them so much he wanted to make them all the time.

And they're so delicious that I never say no.

Ingredients: 

Tortilla chips

Can of beans (black or refried)

Soyrizo (optional... ground turkey or beef can also be used)

Cheese (enough to blanket the chips)

Tomatoes

Onions

Bell peppers (color of your choice)

Avocado

Sour Cream
Cilantro and/or green onions

Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and spread your chips in a single layer. Drain the can of black beans (if you're using refried you might want to heat it separately first to help it spread) and spread it evenly over the chips. 

This is also where you'll want to add some chopped onions.

Optional soyrizo: Cook in a pan on the stove like you would ground turkey or beef (and if you're using ground turkey or beef brown it in a pan on the stove). Cook it thoroughly but don't make it dry cause it's going in the oven in a minute. Spread your cooked soyrizo on the beans and chips evenly so every bite has some. We didn't use soyrizo in these pictures because we ran out.

Cover  the chips and beans with shredded cheese. In the pictures, we're using a mix of pepper jack and cheddar. 

Stick the cookie sheet in the oven at a high temperature, like 400 degrees. Keep an eye on it while it's cooking so you can get the cheese to your perfect level of melted.

This was in the oven about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, chop your tomatoes, bell peppers and avocado (and onions, if you haven't done this already). Once your nachos are nice and gooey stick the fresh ingredients on top with sour cream. Black olives and salsa are also great. 

One cookie sheet of nachos feeds us both, but it has also fed 4 people when we're not being complete fatties.

With this many chopped veggies nachos are healthy, I don't care what you say.

Enjoy!

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Fish Tacos with Chipotle Sauce

Welcome to our new food blog!

Pepper, garlic powder and basil

I think it's appropriate that we're starting it off with fish tacos. Because this is arguably one of the most delicious dishes I know how to make. And it photographs quite nicely, too!

My favorite fish to use in tacos is mahi mahi (oh mouthwatering goodness), but it's expensive so I usually use tilapia. This fish in the pictures is haddock, because it was on sale and looked tasty and the guy said it was similar to tilapia.

Ingredients:

Fish

Tortillas

Cheese

Tomatoes

Bell pepper

Avocado

White sauce (see bottom)

Mmmm golden whitefish!

There are a bunch of ways you can prepare fish for tacos, and grilling would probably be the most delicious, but I live in an apartment so I use the stove. Most whitefish can be seasoned with pretty much whatever you want because they take on the flavors of whatever you cook with, and generally aren't too fishy. I use a few shakes of garlic powder, peppercorns, basil and maybe a bit of sea salt, squeeze a lime slice over it, then cook it in a very thin layer of olive oil.

Crumbly fish goodness is another reason I use the stove.

Mahi mahi will stay in a firm steak form, but tilapia and haddock crumbles like ground meat. Warm corn tortillas either on the stove (careful: my aunt says you need Mexican hands to do that) or in a microwavable tortilla warmer, my favorite kitchen tool. Spoon your awesome fish into some tortillas and top with cheese (pepper jack cheese is the best) while it's still warm so it melts. Top with chipotle sauce (that recipe is a few scrolls down), chopped tomatoes and bell peppers and, of course, avocado. We throw a few black olives onto the pile, too.

Aaaaaand devour. We go back for seconds. And thirds.

Fish tacos get messy, so as delicious and impressive as they may look they aren't great for first dates. Unless you're like us and you're a pro at eating tacos without making a giant mess.

Chipotle taco sauce:

This is my favorite thing ever. I got it from a cook book my BFF gave me and we modified it a bit for our personal tastes. This is the perfect addition to fish tacos, hands down, and is great for dipping chips, which I also make, but I'll be keeping that tidbit to myself. We'll use it for egg tacos, potato tacos, anything taco, and I'm sure it'll be great on pretty much anything else.

Ingredients:

1 cup plain Greek yogurt (you can use mayonnaise, but that's gross)

A few chipotles and like a tablespoon of sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo sauce

1/2 to 1 full bunch of chopped cilantro

Juice from 1 lime

Sea salt

Mix all ingredients together and adjust for your level of spiciness. Chipotles can get spicy. And this sauce gets really spicy if you let it sit for a while. Like, over night.

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