Nachos - the quick meal

Nachos served with celery, sour cream and salsa

I made a quick lunch today - nachos and fruit smoothies. This meal doesn't take long to pull together and took even less time to eat.  And it still includes the 4 food groups - meat, starch, fruit, and vegie.  I've not really embraced the USDA's Food Pyramid, have you?  I understand the concept of needing to eat lower on the food chain but old habbits are hard to break and for me, thinking in terms of a little bit of this and that on a plate is easier than some inverted pyramid.  So today we had protein/lamb, vegie/celery, fruit/strawberries, starch/beans. 

A can of drained beans, salsa, left over shredded meat

Add a can of drained beans to a bowl of left over shredded meat.  This can be made without  meat too but I had some left over from yesterday's meal so I used that.  See recipe post here http://carfreeinannarbor.blogspot.com/2010/12/mexican-lamb-tortillas.html  There's plenty of beans and cheese in this dish so it is filling even without the extra bit of meat.  I also added a 1/2 cup of salsa and a handful of shredded cheddar cheese.

limes

One banana, few cups of frozen strawberries and milk in the Vitamix

Large-sized cheese and tortilla chips

Start building the nachos - layer of chips per person

Divide meat and bean mixture over the plates, adding more shredded cheese

Blend smoothie on high for a minute and pour into cups

Microwave each plate for 1 minute, add celery, sour cream, lime and salsa when hot and gooey

I usually start the microwaving process with the youngest's plate then work my way up to mine and Craig's last.  We usually have most of these ingredients around and everybody seems to enjoy the meal - it feels sort of decadent to have an appetizer/chips for a meal.

Astrid