This Is 5-Star, Baby

I love warmer weather. It's not just the sun that makes me happy - it's also the return of rabbits to our back yard. And baby birds. And mama squirrels. But mostly it's the return of green leafy vegetables and summer salads.

This weekend was wonderfully warm, so it was the perfect time to celebrate with salads aplenty.

One of The Boy's favorite salads is a Tex-Mex hodge-podge I throw together. Leftover beef or chicken, beans of some sort (kidney, black or pinto), cilantro, lettuce, green onions, croutons (or crushed tortilla chips), corn or peas, olives - really anything that's in the fridge and looks like it might work.

But I got The Boy's attention when I paired a Tex-Mex hodge-podge with Shrimp Nachos. He declared them an instant favorite, a 5-star recipe (baby), a guest-pleaser and worthy of a blog post.

Here's my recipe (adapted from Southern Living, April 2010).

Shrimp Nachos

• 1.3 c. (4-5 oz.) shredded pepper Jack cheese
• 1 c. chopped cooked shrimp
• 1 (4.5-oz.) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 1/3 c. reduced-fat mayonnaise
• 1/3 c. chopped green onions
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 48 tortilla chip scoops

Preheat oven to 350°. Stir together pepper Jack cheese and next 6 ingredients. Spoon into tortilla chip scoops; place on a baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes or until cheese is melted.


For maximum yumminess, top each nacho with homemade salsa. (Spicy!!) Then serve it with some freshly sun-brewed sweet peach tea. (Tasty!!)

The Niece was very sad to have missed out on the nachos. At least we saved some tea for her!