On Friday night, Sid and I attended a surprise birthday party. When we left the celebration venue we thought dang, Sloan is with her grandparents, we might as well extend our date night just a bit. So, instead of going directly home, we headed to a favorite restaurant for a late dinner.

Not in a rush to eat because we had an unpredictable toddler and with both of us pretty hungry, we decided to order an appetizer. We decided on nachos and it was so worth it. The platter of crunchy, flaky chips topped with fresh cheddar cheese really hit the spot. Let’s just say that when we left the restaurant we weren’t talking about our entrees.

Fast forward 20 hours to us discussing what to eat for Saturday night dinner. After some thinking, Sidney came up with a genius idea that was inspired by last night’s experience: let’s make homemade nachos!

I said “YES” to Sidney’s suggestion and this is what she whipped together.

When she said that, I couldn’t help but remember my childhood. Growing up, our family would eat nachos on several Saturday nights each year. It was special because we would break the dinner time routine that my parents so rigidly set. Instead of sitting around the table eating our meal with no electronic or outside distractions, the rules were pulled back. We would head down to the basement, start a movie, and eat nachos.

I can visualize it right now. My mom would put a pan of chips covered in shredded cheese into the oven. While they baked, my parents would put the finishing touches on a platter that included refried beans, veggies, sour cream, and salsa. Once the nachos were done in the oven, my mom would take the pan out, the cheese bubbling on the chips, and place it on the kitchen table. We could grab however much we wanted and put them on a plate. We then went to the topping platter and added whatever we wanted on top. Once we had what we desired, we marched downstairs. It was a lot of fun!

With the good vibes flowing, I watched Sloan while Sid went to the grocery store to purchase ingredients. She returned and emptied an entire bag of tortilla chips onto a pan. She proceeded to top it with a package of shredded cheese, a tub of queso cheese, a pound of ground beef, and a pound of sausage. Keeping Sloan occupied meant I didn’t see the final product until Sid had placed it on the kitchen table and told me to look back.

We had enough nachos to feed an army.

A close up look at our nachos from Saturday night.

Digging in, I couldn’t believe how good they tasted. In fact, they were better than the nachos we had the night before. However, we still couldn’t even out a dent into them without our stomachs exploding. We still have leftovers in our fridge.

We gave it our best effort, but this is how much was left after our first round with the nachos on Saturday night.

So I know it took me forever to get to the main point of this blog post but here it is: Need a dinner idea? Make nachos! It is fun, easy, inexpensive, customizable, and a whole lot of other things. Add your own twist and add a little variety to your regular dinner lineup this week. Don’t Blink.