Bean & Vegetable nachos.....with meat

 Wednesday nights dinner is a win, win in our house. I just have to mention the word nacho and the kids start drooling, I mean what's there not to like about crunchy corn chips drenched in a delicious tomato sauce infused with vegetables, beans and in our case left over minced meat, all smothered with melted tasty cheese?
I do think beans are under rated in Australia and not enough people use them in their everyday cooking, especially families. Whenever I have a friend of Maxes over for dinner and I have some type of bean on the menu it gets met with 'yuck' or 'what is that?'. I really don't understand why you wouldn't introduce beans to kids at a young age. The are packed full of proteins, really easy to chew and swallow and mixed with the right ingredients, taste delicious. Anyhow that is my rant for the humble bean- eat more fellow Australians!
Now, when living in the States I had dried chilies at every port of call, it didn't matter if I walked into a tiny corner store, you'd still find some sort of dried chilli to pop in your tomato sauce and make it a smokey, rich flavour. Sadly I am not having so much luck here in Sydney. I know I can special order them on line or drive 30 minutes away to a specialty shop but let's get real. I am cooking a family meal and not really thinking about it until I get home from work and the last thing I am going to do it drive for 30 minutes to grab some dried chilies on Wednesday.

I have moved back to my favourite spice combo. 1 part turmeric powder, 2 parts paprika (smokey or sweet), 2 parts ground cumin, 1 part ground coriander, salt and pepper. When frying this with a little oil and onions it is the most wonderful smell and always sends the kids into the kitchen asking what's for dinner.
This is pretty much my base flavour for nacho sauce, then I add what ever vegetables are around the house, pop in a tin of tomatoes (drained), add a tin of beans and then leave it to simmer for about 40 minutes.
Once all the liquid has thickened all you are left with is a thick vegetable (and in my case meat) base that gets scattered around some corn chips, cheese on top and then into the oven.

We all love nachos in our house, and it is the perfect way to load the kids up with vegetables they would not usually eat or have a song and dance about eating. For an adults boost I usually have some hot sauce on hand or jalapenos and lets not forget the guacamole (my kids still wont eat avocados!).
I would have to mark this one down as an all time favourite and very little stress in the kitchen, I even managed to help Max with his homework while cooking!

Nacho night

We try not to fill the kids up on 'junk'. They don't get to eat potato chips unless they are at a party or they are at a friends house, so when I came up with the idea to have nachos for dinner one night Max cheered and Alex looking all confused, cheered right along with him. Once the seed was planted and I was in the kitchen beginning my mission, Max saddled up beside me and said 'You do know nachos have chips don't you mum?' (poor confused child) I said I knew this and that is was OK. 

 I love chips- potato, corn, sweet potato, polenta anything fried in clean oil with salt added....I'm there, and that is the exact reason why we don't have 'chips' around the house. I would have no problem scoffing the entire bag in one afternoon sharing only the crumbs. I figure the boys will get to do the same soon enough.

  My mum use to make a bean/vegetable mix when I was growing up in Tasmania, Australia. I lived in a Bed & Breakfast/Restaurant between the ages of 13-17, so when we came home from school my sister and I would always have scones with jam and cream, date scones with lashings of butter, sticky date pudding (only on a rare occasion) and nachos for after school snacks- needless to say the waist band on our school skirts got a bit tight!

 Nachos were my favorite in winter, next to the sticky date pudding (that is a whole other story). Cheesy and thanks to the beans mum use to put in the mix, very filling. Since living in America I have discovered Mexican chilies and I haven't looked back. So when I decided to recreate mum's nachos I added a bit of fire to Nic and mine with dried habanero chilies. I soaked them first in boiling water, took the seeds out and then added them to our batch after I removed the boys portion and kept it chili and cilantro free (not a herb they have caught onto yet).

Needless to say this dinner is ALWAYS a huge success. Boys are happy as can be with their bean nachos topped with sour cream and cheese while Nic and I are enjoying the delicious flavor of the habanero chili an beans mixed with guacamole, sour cream, and salty corn chips. A meal any vegetarian would be proud of.  Of course nothing helps wash it down more than an icy cold beer.