Lemon Avocado Nachos

Nachos, I will venture to say, are probably one of the best things ever conceived. They're crunchy, gooey, warm and delicious. Even though they're often relegated to the drunken bar food category, I think they're pretty fantastic in any setting. Since they tend to be heavy, I added some lighter-tasting ingredients to brighten the dish up a little. Here's what you need:

• a bag of chips, duh (I mow down on Mission Tortilla Triangles)
• a bag of Mexican shredded cheese, duh
• black refried beans
• a jalapeno
• black sliced olives
• chopped white onion
• corn
• minced garlic
• an avocado
• a tomato
• a lemon
• sour cream
• cilantro (for garnish) 

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Chop up the jalapeno, onion and garlic. Mix it all together with the corn and olives, and sprinkle some salt and pepper on top.

The next step is to mix these veggies with half a can of black refried beans, so the amount of veggies you add just depends on how chunky you want it to be. I used a whole jalapeno, about 7 olives, a quarter of the onion, about 1/8 cup frozen corn and a clove of garlic. For extra goodness, add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. I made these meatless, but if you cooked some ground beef you could add it to the bean mix right now. If you cooked chicken breast, I'd probably dice it up and add it on top before it goes in the oven.

Now put a sheet of aluminum foil on a cookie sheet and spray it with some non-stick cooking spray. Spread some chips out in an even layer on the sheet, then spread out about half of the bean mixture over the chips.

Sprinkle as much cheese as you like on top, then add another layer of chips, beans and cheese. It's a double decker. We're not messing around.

I ran out of cheese, so this is a little skimpier than normal. I like a lot of cheese. It tastes pretty good. Throw this pile in the oven until the cheese gets bubbly, maybe like 15 minutes. Just keep an eye on it. While it's cooking, chop up the tomato and mash it together with the avocado. Add a little garlic salt and pepper to it.


When the cheese is melted, take the nachos out of the oven and spread the avocado mush over the chips. Add a dollop of sour cream on top. Zest about half the lemon over it, and squeeze some lemon juice over the whole thing. Take a few sprigs worth of chopped cilantro and pepper it over the top. I picked the whole thing up by the foil and transferred it to a plate.

Grab a beer and watch some T.V., just try not to eat the whole thing yourself. I did that, and I didn't feel super great for awhile. I mean, my mouth was happy, but I couldn't move for, like, 7 hours. Just invite a friend over or something.