Black Bean Nachos

 

Happy Monday guys!  Let me tell you how mine started.  Well, if you're friends with me on Facebook, you probably already know.   But I'll tell you again because, frankly, I just need to vent. 

Before I left for work, I went to take the dogs for a walk.  As I'm walking, a biker is coming up towards us, and happens to have a dog along with him.  One of our dogs (Mocha), decides to book-it towards the dog and gets undone from her collar - this is one of those "oh sh*t" moments.  So after some sniffing in some inappropriate spots, I get Mocha away from the other dog (all while still handling our other dog, Zappa).  So I tell Mocha to "sit" and she does, but as soon as I come up to her to put her collar back on, she shoots off in another direction.  So this goes on for a good 10 minutes (maybe it was only 2 or 3, but my patience was getting thin and it seemed like an eternity) until I finally get her collar back on her.  So yeah, not the kind of Monday morning I thought I'd be having.

Anyway, we had our engagement picture session on Saturday and we had so much fun in the park!  I can't wait to see the final results and share them with you all - so stay tuned!

We made these nachos for dinner last week and they're just loaded with good stuff!  They're meatless, so even better for my vegetarian readers!  Although, I think we may try this next time with some chorizo!

Ingredients:

Tortilla chips
15 oz. can seasoned black beans, drained
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 & 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, plus more for topping
1/2 cup chipotle cheddar cheese (or regular cheddar cheese, but a friend of mine brought me this from Wisconsin a few days ago!)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
Sour cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil under medium high heat.  Add onions and both bell peppers.  Saute until softened, about 6-8 minutes.  Stir in black beans and cook until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and top with tortilla chips (I used about 3/4 of a bag).  Top with bean and pepper mixture.  Then add mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.

Baking in oven for about 10 minutes, or until cheeses are melted and slightly browned.

Top with additional cheese and sour cream, if desired. 

This was such a filling dinner that we didn't even miss the meat!  I'm loving easy dinners like this nowadays because it seems like our (work) days are getting longer, so it's nice to have a quick meal planned like this!  Feel free to vary on the toppings - jalapenos would be a nice spicy addition to this too!

How do you like your nachos?

See you all tomorrow!