Lyrics Revisited

Sometimes you grow up and hear a song from junior high and you really hear the lyrics for the first time and the whole song is changed for you.

My most recent encounter was with the often joked, much loved by teenagers, Discovery Channel Song (which is actually "The Bad Touch" by Bloodhound Gang? Who knew?).  I'll only pull out my most favorite lines and let you know the thoughts I had when hearing them again:

"Me and you do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about"

Ok- so in late high school I heard the remake of Darling Nicky which introduced me to Prince's original Darling Nicky which shines a whole new light on this line. At least that's the Prince song I'm thinking of.

"I want you smothered want you covered like my Waffle House hashbrowns"

 Oh hashbrowns, that would be so good right now, I love mine smothered too. All that cheese.....

"just like Coca-Cola stock you are inclined"

That's actually pretty intelligent.

"To make me rise an hour early just like Daylight Savings Time"

That's not attractive, there is nothing attractive about Daylight Savings Time. Unless it's fall back, yes you should fall back like Daylight Savings Time.

"Let me be Pacific I wanna be down in your South Seas"

By golly, that's even geographically accurate!

"Please turn me on I'm Mister Coffee with an automatic drip"

Hahahaha, Mister Coffee's in a rap.

So maybe I haven't entirely matured since junior high but I certainly listen to the lyrics more. I mean the song's still just about sex which isn't really my song muse of choice. BUT- the lyrics are clever and accurate which is more than I can say for half the rap music my students are listening to these days. Gotta love a man who uses accurate geography and yummy food euphemisms to talk about doing it.

3-day Weekend? 3-day YES

🎶Staycation, all I ever wanted.... Staycation, had to get away! 🎶

This weekend starts with the kick-off of restaurant week!!! Ie- one of our favorite weeks of the year! Stay tuned for a recap and info on how we conquer the week most beloved of foodies in Kansas City. 

In the meantime, I'll happily relax in my paid-for-one-night ultra-long-and-super-perfect tub before hitting restaurant 1 😄

🎶...had to get away...🎶

How to Shop for Your Husband

While Your Husband's with You and You're Trying to Keep It a Secret for Pete's Sake!

So after being cooped up in the house for 2 days with a sick wife, by Black Friday Coach was ready to break free. Problem was, I had two specific things I wanted to go out and buy him for Christmas gifts. We do as many surprise gifts for each other as possible. I'm just not into the whole pick-it-out-myself-then-pretend-to-be-surprised-later gig. Originally my dad was going to take Nick out so Mom and I could hit the stores and accomplish the mission. Note that I said originally. Dad changed his mind and wasn't moving fast enough, Nick was not being left behind at the house, so all four of us head out together. Wonderful.

I cornered my dad and told him he had to get Nick pulled away some so I could get things purchased. Dad says "sure, no problem!" Well I don't know where he got the idea, but my normally best-secret-keeping-ever father was giving me like 2-minute windows of opportunity. After ditching this particular sweater on the floor 3 different times at Macy's I gave up. Time to move on.

So then of course, we're wandering around the not giant mall that's in SEMO and I'm constantly trying to figure in my head how to ditch the hubs and go back to get the sweater. It's not working. I'm at my breaking point and finally just declare to my husband "You won't get ANY presents for Christmas if you don't leave me alone to shop!" He got the picture then, though part of the surprise was still ruined in my opinion. So I manage to get back to Macy's, purchase the sweater, and only glare at the men once or twice for ruining my Christmas shenanigans.

Time for part 2. I needed to buy some tools at Sears. They had a drill set on sale for Black Friday, I had a $100 gift card from our refrigerator fiasco, it was meant to be. Coach hadn't even thought to ask for a new drill but a couple of off-hand comments by him let me know he would be delighted to get one. Here's how I planned to pull this off: The Sears parking lot is connected to TJ Maxx's lot. The men drop off the women at TJ Maxx then go off on their own to a more manly store. Like the hardware store across the street. Mom and I hike over to Sears, get the drill set, then hike back to TJ Maxx where we make a dumb purchase but ask for their biggest bag so we can hide that we went to Sears. Perfect plan right?!?

Sure, until Dad decides he wants to go to TJ Maxx too. Insert groans of frustration here. So now we're wandering around TJ Maxx buying pointless stuff because Mom and I have to act like we really wanted to go there. (And I'm being rude, I really did get some nice new Christmas decorations for our house plus Mom got me a new pair of fleece-lined leggings). We get back to the car and I finally just say, OK- I need to go to Sears. For the first time all day Dad got helpful and said he needed more jerky seasoning and how about he and Nick run up to SAM's Club to get some. Score! Mom and I hustle inside of Sears, get the drill and have the clerk triple bag it so you can just barely make out the yellow DeWalt box inside. At this point though I'm convinced Nick knows he's getting at least tools and that he'll see the darn yellow box at some point in the travel process. Not to mention that I have never once shopped for anything for myself at Sears in the entirety of our relationship so he surely knows I'm buying him tools. So I'm still not really happy about the situation but oh well.

By then I was tired, we went home, I napped again before dinner, and we ended the day at our favorite local hibachi restaurant. Love me some Shogun!!

(Just so you know, Coach claims to have been completely surprised by the drills and had no idea. He might still be bluffing but I'll take it since he was so happy to receive them).

Telling Your Husband Too Much

So this conversation took place last night. I might have had a bit too much for dinner and it left my stomach feeling all roly-poly. We were finally in bed for the evening....

Coach: Are you feeling better?
Me: Yeah- after I puked anyway.
C: You puked?
M: Yeah, and it helped. But do you want to know what happened?
C: No
M: Hey, I'm supposed to be able to tell you everything.
C: No you're not.
M: Hey now, you married m-- C: No.

Well obviously that wasn't going to work. So I told him anyway. And now I'll tell you. I will warn you though that it involves puke and pee and a small scene with a spider. If that's too much for you then it's probably best you stop reading now. :)

I was feeling all queasy and bubbly inside. I figured that I just ate too much and going to the bathroom might help. So I'm sitting on the toilet happily peeing and what comes scurrying across the floor right after I start? A wolf spider- aka, my arch nemesis in life. I stayed calm. I grabbed my hairspray and sprayed the literal living life out of the SOB. (This is a trick I learned when I lived alone, hair spray kills or at least paralyzes the spider so you can vacuum it up).

I pulled up my pants (they were around my ankles during the extermination), flush the spider remains, wash my hands, and return to the den. I'm sitting there and my stomach feels all roly again. I figure it's because I had stopped my bathroom break earlier. Back up the stairs I go!

I sit down, start to pee, and immediately feel it. The vomit. It's in my throat. I look around and the trashcan is full and doesn't even have a bag. Oh no- it's in my mouth. I clamp my lips closed and in one, swift move I flush the toilet, pull up my pants, pivot, kneel, and barf into the flushing waters. For some reason puking into pee seemed unsanitary. What if it splashed? So the first round's good but you know there's never just one. Gag round 2 comes (the first was really just an appetizer) and I happily puke the full amount. Except...wait....my panties are damp. I feel and yup, my pants are damp too. Apparently you can only stop your pee mid-stream one time in the evening. The second time and you are doomed to pee your pants while puking. I supposed the force and all that just squeezed the remains out!

So long story short, I peed my pants while puking. I wanted to tell my husband about it but he didn't want to hear it. I told him anyway. After I had finished my story he just stares at me. I sweetly say, "Oops, too much information?" Coach just rolls his eyes, kissed me goodnight and left it at that.

Not so innocent

Know what this is a picture of?

Bet you think it's a picture of our 2 adorable dogs snoozing away in our not-so-clean bedroom.

Well you're only partially right. They're snoozing away because these two yahoos went on a little adventure.

We've got 2 curious. active dogs and a weak fence. So we have an electric fence run around the perimeter. Apparently someone doesn't think that shock is "that big of a deal" because he just chewed through the wire. That's the little yahoo's work guaranteed (he's about a year old and we adopted him in February (goes by Captain).

The big yahoo is the runner though (goes by Guinness). He's been around for about 7 years but you still can't trust him to not bolt out the front door. And of course little man just follows him everywhere! So these two geniuses managed to get the fence deactivated and then make a run for it. The genius in the scheme ran out though as they managed to get themselves INTO another person's backyard and then couldn't get out. Whatever kind of fence that person has- we need it. So the homeowner notices these two dogs in his backyard and calls animal control.

Good news- both our boys have lifetime licenses with the city which means free pick up from Animal Control. They even drove them back to our house for us. I tried to take a picture of them getting out of the paddy-wagon, but my camera wouldn't cooperate. It's like their very own car service.

Now here's the bad-parenting part of the situation. We'd left the boys out in the yard while we went to a baby gender-reveal party. We came home, heard a bark and just went straight to our individual couches for a little afternoon snoozer. Oops. About 2 hours later we go check on the boys as we're getting ready to leave again and then notice they're gone. We're rushing to the car to go drive around and find them when Animal Control calls. So then we're rushing around to look like we just got home and hadn't actually been sleeping on the couch while our dogs were roaming the neighborhood.

Oh well, all's well that ends well right?? Coach fixed the fence, we tightened up those electric collars, and now we're vigilant about checking on them first thing home every time! We've learned that they're too sneaky by far.

Don't worry Jenny, kids in the 90s got messed up too

So I was reading a favorite blog of mine the other day - the Bloggess of course. She wrote a post about basically white people ruining Latino music via translation but turns out the songs kind of creepy in its original version too (maybe? I didn't check her translation but I believe it anyway). So kids in the 70s were taught a weird song that's really just a poor translation of another weird song but isn't Carmen Miranda great?

So I watched the video link she included. And I realized I knew the song. Or the version my childhood self had learned which is nothing close to accurate since I knew NO Spanish as a child. But I have good reason, because the only reason I know the song, or even about Carmen Miranda really, is from Jerry Lewis. 

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movies were some of our favorites when we were kids. Scared Stiff is a special favorite. So here you go Jenny, I'm a kid for the 90s who learned Carmen Miranda from Jerry Lewis doing Carmen Miranda. And no. I don't know the song past the point of the record getting stuck. Obviously since the record got stuck.

 

Being "That" Bride

I know a lot of things about myself. I know that I'm smart, funny, and loving. I also know that I'm impatient, demanding, and very bossy. My closest friends and I laugh about how I'm always "that" girl. The one who's so Type-A that she can't relax. The one who's destined to be the Martha Stewart of mothers- going all the way to jail if necessary to be perfect. And I'll admit- for the most part I accept this about myself. I try to overcome my rigidness and go with the flow, but sometimes that means knowing what situations will make me a nice person and creating those situations.

So when I got engaged I just knew, I knew, that I would be "that" bride. And I was- I needed real china, a 6 foot train, and I scheduled that day down to the minute. (For the record, everything ran like clockwork so it was worth it!). But sometimes, even my perfect planning and managing still created situations like this:

The most beautiful day of my life and there are still these moments. It's poetic really. I think I might make it my new profile picture. Which is why I worked my butt off to be the nice version of "that" girl. And I think I managed that. I definitely had my moments; don't we all?! Overall though it was an awesome, amazing day- even when my cathedral length veil insisted on attacking me. :)

Things I've learned since being engaged

Being engaged is fun. I earned the fancy French title "fiancé." I have awesome new bling on a previously-always-naked finger. Plus there's the obvious benefit of finally putting my dream wedding into a real thing. What fun!

There are weird draw-backs though. People just ask you these questions and I'm forced to give the polite answer. To the people with whom I'm actually friends, I laugh in their face. To the students people with whom I'm not actually friends, I have to bite my tongue. Here are my personal favorites and my would-be responses if manners and professionalism didn't hold me back.

1. I can't wait for your wedding, it's going to be so great! You're not invited, please stop thinking you are. Plus it's rude to assume you are since that means you're inviting yourself to my wedding, manners please!
2. Where are you going for your honeymoon? We haven't been engaged a week, we don't have a date set, but YES, of course we have our honeymoon planned.
3. My cousin went to this wedding where they had this thing, are going to have this thing? No
4. I have all my old wedding planning stuff, do you want me to bring it to you? To be fair, at first my answer would have been yes. Reality quickly set in and the answer is no, there are tons of wedding planning tools out there and while I realize you put a lot of time in your planning, it is likely not useful to me.
5. When are you going to have kids? We've been engaged a week. It won't be tomorrow, it won't be 9 months from now, and you're probably not the first person I'll be telling anyway.
6. Do you love him? No, I just got tired of living by myself and figured this would be a cool way to get a roommate.
7. I can't wait to see the invitation! You're not invited, please stop thinking you are...
8. Isn't a summer wedding going to be hot? Actually we chose July because we thought the cool weather would go well with our winter theme.
9. You should invite like the whole school! Stop talking.
10. I'll be your bridesmaid if you need one! Why do you think I need one? I have friends.

It really is all fun though. I wouldn't trade where I am for anything in the world. And even though these questions make me wonder about people I know in my heart they really do mean well. They just don't know how to express it.

Italian Meatballs

I made up this recipe based on several different ones found online when searching for a way to add meet to the pasta alla vodka meal.

The one that sounded most appealing was made with ground turkey. I replaced the turkey with a combo of ground beef and Italian sausage. I also doubled the recipe simple because I didn't want to store the leftover beef and sausage. Instead, I froze the unused meatballs and will use them later in life. :)

Here's the root recipe:
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb Italian sausage
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper

From the get go I had to make some substitutions simply from lack of ingredients. I didn't have enough plain bread crumbs so I used the rest of the Italian bread crumbs I had on hand. That with the Italian sausage led me to leave the Italian seasoning amount at 1 Tbsp (instead of doubling it to 2). PS- I used my home-made Italian seasoning.

Cast of characters.

After dumping it all into the bowl, I quickly realized only hand mixing would do!

I rolled them out into 1 1/2 inch balls- this was completely random. I just made them about the sized I picture meatballs as being. I baked them in the oven on parchment paper at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, turning them halfway through.

The remainder went onto another lined baking sheet to sit in the freezer just long enough to set up firm. Once I knew they wouldn't mash all together I dumped them into a freezer bag and sealed them up right.

The freezer tray was not nearly as neat and tidy as the baking tray.

 

 

I will admit that my first meatballs could have baked about less 5 minutes less than they did. With the sauce and pasta though, they were delightful! I can't wait to use my frozen ones for some meatball subs. Yum!

PS- this made about 36 meatballs.

Pasta alla Vodka

This post is going to have to happen in pieces.

The root of my desire was some pasta alla vodka that I always order at a local Italian restaurant. They serve their's with cheese tortellini and I decided to try my hand at making my own. I think it needed to have something good and meaty to go with it. The final result was Italian meatballs with cheese tortellini in vodka sauce. Yum!

The sauce recipe I found was from the Pioneer Woman. She's pretty handy in the kitchen so I figured I could trust her. Here's the root recipe:

1 medium diced onion

3 clove garlic, finely diced

3/4 cup vodka

1 can tomato puree

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 tsp salt

pinch red pepper flakes

1 Tbsp butter

pinch black pepper

I sauteed my onion and garlic before adding the vodka to simmer and reduce.

First error here- I'm a teacher and I cook on a shoestring budget. I used cheap vodka. Cheap vodka has stronger flavor and therefore needs to simmer and reduce longer to remove the vodka-ness of the taste. In the future I will honestly just use less vodka. I'm too cheap to shell out money for better stock although that would be the ideal solution.

Next I added the tomato and cream and did the summer and reduce thing some more.

This is much more "red" than the sauce was in reality- my bad flourescent kitchen lighting is not kind to photographs. And no, there isn't a window in my kitchen from which to utilize natural light.

Finally, because Pioneer Woman said so, I added the butter and adjusted the seasonings. A little longer on the simmer and reduce routine finished off the sauce.

I had made my meatballs beforehand and cooked my noodles while making the sauce. I used the pre-made fresh noodles you find packaged in the refrigerator unit at the store. I wasn't a huge fan sadly. I will probably try a couple of different varieties before giving up on convenience tortellini but I have kind of already decided to just use cheese ravioli next time. The sauce though was delicious.

Despite the changes I will make in future editions the meal was still delicious. And pretty!

Gringo Dip

For a long time I've been wanting to try my hand at making my own Gringo Dip (normally found at a favorite restaurant, 54th Street). After perusing various recipes, I finally chose the route I would take and made my own attempts. Since I was thinking like a blogger, I actually wrote down amounts as I added them!

First let me say that I didn't use a double boiler. I don't own one. I simply melted my cheese dip with a low temp and lots of patience on the stove. As long as you stir frequently and keep those temps low (my dial was on 4), then you should be OK.

 

Recipe:

4 oz pepper jack cheese, cubed

4 oz monterey jack cheese, cubed

4 oz Velveeta, cubed

1 cup half and half

3/4 cup pico de gallo

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated

2 1/2 oz frozen chopped spinach

I put everything in the pot but the spinach and stirred until it was all smoothly melted. Then I added in the spinach and cooked until the spinach was all thawed and mixed in. It makes about 4 cups of cheese dip. We ate half the pot and I filled a 2-cup tupperware with leftovers.

How this compares to other recipes:
I used plain old yellow Velveeta so my cheese is more yellow than the original. You could buy the white Velveeta, but I just used what I had on hand. Also, I used way less spinach than other recipes call for. I don't care for spinach and simple tolerate it in recipes like this. Even still, Sig agreed that any more would have made for a spinach dip instead of a queso dip. This recipe is also much smaller in size than the other copy-cats I've seen.

What I will do different next time:
Sig likes his dips more spicy so I will probably add more pepper jack and take away some monty jack. You can always add more cayenne too (which is the type of heat I prefer). I initially thought I should use less half and half but my teacher brain kicked in to remind me that cheese sauces thicken upon standing. The consistency turned out perfect!

How much it cost:
Like me, you probably have the Velveeta, cayenne, and parmesan on hand. I bought fresh pico from the deli section for $3, monty jack and pepper jack cost me another $4, half and half was $2 and the spinach $1.50. The remaining pico will be used in recipes later this week, the remaining cheese will keep, and I'll make sure to use the half and half before it expires. I measured my spinach still frozen, so that remaining will keep in the freezer too. All in all it probably comes about $6 worth of ingredients.

And because we're piglets, the only photo I have to share is the one of the leftovers. This will probably be my very unhealthy lunch tomorrow!

*Please ignore my dirty stone- we had stuffed peppers for dinner with the dip. I promise it was cleaned appropriately!

Homemade Spice Mixes

I found this idea on Pinterest of course. I made my own taco seasoning, ranch seasoning, onion soup mix and Italian dressing mix. The first three came from Jamie over at Self-Reliance. The last came from a combination of places (I adjusted it to suit my own needs).

Taco seasoning is used for tacos of course (beef or chicken). The ranch seasoning can be used for ranch dressing, but I mostly use it to make ranch dip. The onion soup mix I use for dips and to flavor my pot roasts. The Italian dressing I use exclusively for seasoning buttered bread on any night we have pasta. This is the only time I use the seasoning but it happens at least once a week. Italian dressing is something I only use for marinade so I prefer the zesty version- not made with this seasoning mix.

I added up the amounts I needed and double-checked the quantities I had on hand in my spice cabinet. I ended up spending about $30 on spices, but I bought the large quantity size so I'm ready to make more mixes when I need it. I filled 2 pint jars each and used the little round canning sticker labels you can buy in the store (about $9 spent on the jars and labels). If I were gifting these then I would have made cuter labels with my Cricut. But for my own pantry, a handwritten sticker will do.

Ranch:

5 tablespoons dried minced onions

7 teaspoons parsley flakes

4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

 

Dry Onion Soup Mix:

2/3 cup dried, minced onion

3 teaspoons parsley flakes

2 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons turmeric

1 teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

 

Taco Seasoning:

1/2 cup chili powder
1/4 cup onion powder
1/8 cup ground cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon sea salt

 

Italian Dressing Mix:

I'll tell you when I find the paper I wrote it down on....
3/4 tsp garlic powder
2 1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp onion powder
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp gound oregano
1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
1 tbsp parsley
1/4 tsp celery salt
 

And ta-da! Healthy and convenient mixes I can simply spoon out at my pleasure. I keep a jar of each in my spice cabinet with the spare jars in the pantry. I'm about half-way through my first jar of the Italian already, and a third way through my taco. The ranch I've used minimally, but I have some potato recipes I'm going to play around with. The onion soup will get used the most heavily this fall when I'm making roasts again. It's simply too hot this summer for such a heavy meal!
Enjoy!

Better Poppyseed Dressing

So with all this madness with the new house, me moving to a new apartment, working like crazy, and being lazy, I don't work out much. I figure when I'm settled in the new town I'll figure out some fitness plan. In the meantime, I eat a lot of rabbit food and try to keep my diet in check. (Except that it's summer so that means I have a lot ice cream right now.) Not to mention, a cool salad on a hot day is my idea of perfect.

Now as far as salads go, I adore Panera. They rock my world, especially now that I get free stuff every time thanks to the myPanera card. But I can't afford to buy every rabbit meal I eat, therefore I cook. Since it's summer, Panera has their strawberry poppyseed salad available. As much as I love most of their salads (the Cobb, Caesar, and Asian are favorites of mine), this one doesn't do it for me. Because I've found a recipe one better. ;-)
First make this dressing, it should make enough for a few salads a week for lunch:

¾ cup sugar (or Splenda if you're like that)
1/3 cup cider vinegar (or you can use an apple balsamic)

1 tsp. salt
½ cup oil

1 tsp. dry mustard
½ tsp poppyseeds

Mix it all together and store in a covered container. If you get fancy you can actually buy salad dressing containers to keep your home-made dressings in. I want one (or three) but haven't actually found any I like yet. I'd love suggestions!

Then when lunch time comes, all you need to do is tear open a bag of romaine lettuce or spinach (use a dark colored leaf for maximum flavor and vitamins), slice up an apple and strawberries, toss in some walnuts, celery, and green onion, bada bing, bada boom, you've got a yummy summer salad.

I chop the strawberry, celery and green onions ahead of time and keep in another container ready to go. The apple I slice daily because I'll end up eating the whole apple.

It's a great meal because it tastes like summer (we all know how obsessed I am) but it has ingredients easily available during the winter. Not to mention you get two servings of vegetables and one serving of fruit in one meal. Fabulous!

*PS- this salad is super cute for Fourth of July, add some blueberries to make a red, white, and blue color splash.

*PPS- this is also good with chicken if you're looking for the protein. If I add chicken, I usually use some leftover rotisserie chicken because it's more salty (to balance with the sweet dressing).

Disclaimer- this isn't an "original" recipe. I have seen versions of it ALL over the place. I have no idea who the original creator is, they are a genius though.

Pot Roast Nachos

So I went to M&S Grill for my girl's night out. We had pot roast nachos and they were amazing. Such a simple concept right?! Pot roast on nachos instead of chicken. Easy peasy. And seeing as how I'm a foods teacher, I decided to conquer this piece of heavenly delight.

Originally I figured I would just wing it. I would by some big tortilla chips, spread them with pot roast, a little fresh pico (easily purchased in your grocery's deli department), sprinkle with cheese, and broil till melted and toasty. Easy right? Well I decided to investigate the web anyway just in case there was a copy-cat recipe out there.....and there was! It was a little more intense than I was figuring on so I hesitated, but I had the time, money, and inclination to take it on. Boy am I glad I did!

The secret is the aioli. I have never made one before so I was a little nervous. Fortunately this is kind of a cheater aioli and is pretty much just flavored mayo. I did, however, remember again why you should wear gloves when chopping peppers because that Serrano juice has been dangerously close to my eye more than once this evening. I also tried my hand at making my own chips, and while tasty they weren't as crispy as I desired. If I used store-bought chips I think the saltiness of the dish might be too high (I don't like salty). I discovered my problem was the tortillas I fried. I use flour and should have used corn.

My aioli tasted good but I had twice as much as I needed, it's very spicy so a little goes a long way, and mine was a little runny. Luckily it refrigerates and should keep for a while. In the future I'll use less lemon juice to make it a bit thicker (I didn't use any of the canola btw). I also sprinkled mine with a Mexican blend of cheese- I liked having the white and orange mixture but the seasonings weren't needed. The future versions will probably just have straight up cheddar. I also sauteed my vegetables like a good little FACS teacher, but it was stupidly time consuming so next time I'm just going to use the pre-made pico. It'll work. Now the pot roast- ideally you would use your left over roast. I don't have left over roast. When I make pot roast, we eat the whole thing. But I like "leftover" roast recipes so I've come across a cheater roast that's really good. It's the Hormel brand Beef Roast Au Jus and is super convenient. Not to mention pretty cheap. Here's the final product:

In case you can't tell- I couldn't wait to try a bite before taking the picture.

And here's the recipe, as found here:

Delicious Pot Roast Nachos

• Time 20 minutes
• Serves 4

Ingredients

---

• 4 each 8 inch tortillas cut into quarters and fried
• 2 cups leftover pot roast (rough chopped)
• 1 cup chili aioli (see below)
• 1 cup peppers, sliced and sautéed
• 1 cup yellow onion, sliced and sautéed
• 3 cups shredded cheddar or mixed cheese
• For the Chili Aioli:
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
• 1 Serrano chili, diced
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1-2 Tbsp. canola oil
• Sugar, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste

How to make it

---

• Lay tortillas flat on a baking sheet
• spoon 1 tablespoon of chili aioli on each chip
• divide the peppers and onions on all the chips
• divide the pot roast on all the chips
• divide the cheese on all the chips
• broil until cheese is melted (about 5 minutes)
• top with salsa and green onions and serve
• For the Chili Aioli:
• • In a food processor, combine the jalapeño, Serrano chili, red pepper flakes, and garlic until finely minced. Add the lemon juice and mayonnaise.
• • Gradually add the canola oil until the mixture is slightly thinner than mayonnaise. Season with the sugar, salt, and pepper.
• • Refrigerate until ready to use.