Does anyone else remember that commercial from about 10 years ago with the guy singing about Nachos to the “Macho Man” song? I always think of that when I make nachos because my 3 year old nephew (who is now 22–where does the time go?!) would go around singing it all day long. Anyway, this is one of my favorite meals because it is fast, easy for kids to help with, has a lot of vegetables and uses food storage! My family really loves the black bean variety! In a real pinch you could just open a can of beans but if you have 30 minutes you can cook them from scratch in your pressure cooker (you can download my FREE pressure cooker handout HERE)! Yes, you read that right, beans done in 30 minutes! In fact, it’s so easy to use the electric pressure cooker that my second grader can make the beans all by herself! Trust me, there is no comparison to home cooked beans. (Even those freeze dried ones, which I would never buy because they are easily 5x more expensive than just plan old canned beans from the store and still take 15-20 minutes to hydrate)
COOKING BEANS IN AN ELECTRIC PRESSURE COOKER
You can either have everyone make their own plate in the microwave or make it family style in the oven. Kids can help cut vegetables (if old enough) put chips on plates/cookies sheet, or help top the nachos with toppings. If you’re worried about children only wanting cheese then let them choose 3 or 4 toppings and have some vegetables in the mix for them to try (that is how we got my son and daughter to love tomatoes). You can even make it fun by telling them to experiment with toppings by putting different combinations of topping on top with each section they eat.
Topping Suggestions:
• Cheese
• Cooked Refried Beans or Black Beans (yeah for food storage!)
• Cooked Ground Beef
• Corn
• Olives
• Tomatoes
• Avocado or Guacamole
• Salsa
• Sour Cream
• Yellow or Green Onions
• Bell Peppers
• Jalapenos or Green Chiles (I like the canned/bottled variety)
Family Style:
Turn your oven broiler on. Cover a cookie sheet with tortilla chips. Top with cheese and cooked beans and/or meat. Place under the broiler for about five minutes. Watch it closely or the cheese and/or tortilla chips will burn! (Make sure not to have young children around the oven at this time) You can either put the toppings on out of the oven or let everyone put their own toppings on after they take some chips. The oven will keep the chips crunchy!
Individual Style:
Place tortilla chips on a plate and top with cheese and cooked beans and/or meat. Cook in microwave until cheese is melted and top with desired toppings.
Thanks for the memories, here is a link to the song for your hearing pleasure. I have the song stuck in my head now. I hope having nachos for dinner will release it. Humm, wonder where I got that idea? Thanks for the great ideas, keep them coming. The great thing about nachos is that you can personalize them. I can have “normal” ones and my husband can pile them up with pineapple, serrano peppers, green olives and gorgonzola cheese. You can see why making person ones works best for us.