Tuesday 21 May 2013

Nacho Average Joe


"Some nachos, a Sloppy Joe, and a pizza walk into a bar..."

Sounds like the start of a bad joke, right?  But this dish came together from almost as random a series of events.

I try to keep my kitchen organized, to plan my meals, and to make the best possible use of the ingredients I have on hand, but some days I'm just not lovin' kitchen duty:  I'm too lazy tired to cook,  or too lazy busy, or broke to go to the grocery store.  Other days what I've planned for supper just doesn't appeal to me when it comes time to make it.

It's at those times that the oddest dishes come of of my kitchen.

Like this one.

These nachos smelled so good when I took them out of the oven, and tasted so good when we ate them, that I had to share them with you, but they were such an oddball combination that I took no photos while making them.  I really hadn't intended to post the recipe. 

Here's how this dish happened:

I'd made Slightly Disheveled Joseph ahead of time and planned to serve it over biscuits for supper, but I was so tired when I got home that I just couldn't summon up the energy to make the biscuits.  We were out of hamburger buns and all the bread was frozen, so I decided to save Joseph for the next day and peruse the fridge to see what other options were available.

I had shredded mozzarella and edam, some cooked Italian sausage, onion, yellow bell pepper, pineapple chunks, and black olives.  Yeah! Pizza!

...But no pizza crusts left in the freezer.  Dang!

I went to the pantry and found a big bag of tortilla chips.  Hello Plan C!  Nachos!

I spread the tortilla chips in a pan, then topped them with the Slightly Disheveled Joseph mixture.

I chopped the onion and yellow pepper and sprinkled them over top.

I decided to keep the Italian sausage for another day, but I did add some pineapple and sliced black olives, because I like them both on my pizza.  I figured they'd taste fine with the slightly acidic flavour of the Slightly Disheveled Joseph.

I topped the whole thing with the shredded cheese and popped it in a 350F oven for about 30 minutes; until everything was heated through and the cheese was all melty.



We ate the whole dish in one sitting:  Definitely Nacho Average Sloppy Joe!   :^)