ARF/5-A-Day #87

Had to go out tonight with a friend, but luckily I planned ahead, and made my ARF/5-A-Day contribution last night … Beef Nachos. Ever since we had nachos at a local Mexican place recently, Nicholas has become a big fan, so I thought it would be fun if we made them together.

Although I don’t make them often, I love making nachos at home, because you can personalize at will … more cheese, no cheese, spicy, not so much, extra meat, hold the olives and so on. Delicious, quick and simple – my kind of starter. You really don’t need a recipe for nachos, but I used a Martha Stewart one from a recent issue of Everyday Food. Instead of pork picadillo, I used cooked ground beef, just to cut down on my kitchen time. Now let’s see what everyone else whipped up this week.

Charise from More Bread and Cheese, Please celebrates a little bit ‘o summer with her heirloom tomatoes dish:

Teczcape goes the tofu route this week with her Green Beans with Five Spice Tofu:

Sarah from What Smells So Good dishes up the very Weight Watchers friendly Kickin‘ Out Cancer Soup.

Stoneview is back this week and has soup on the mind as well, contributing her Corn and Kale Soup:

Claire from Cooking Is Medicine finishes us off tonight with her very unusual Raisin Bran Bread:

Picadillo Nachos
Recipe courtesy of Everyday Food

5 oz tortilla chips (about 8 cups)
4 oz Monterey Jack cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
2 cups Pork Picadillo (I used about a 1 lb of seasoned, cooked, ground beef)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 avocado, halved, pitted, peeled and cubed
1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered or diced plum tomatoes

Heat broiler with rack set 4 inches from heat. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place chips, slightly overlapping, on prepared sheet. Sprinkle with half the cheese, then picadillo and remaining cheese. Broil until cheese is melted, 2 to 5 inches. Top with cilantro, avocado and tomatoes before serving.

Serves 4.