“Luke, I am Nacho Pizza”

So, what does the average person do with a terrible cookie icing utensil that has never worked properly?  Throw it away, of course!  What does a nerd mom do with said cookie icer?  Make Darth Vader magic for her kids by filling it with sour cream and decorating a celebratory pizza.

Let me give you a little backstory: for the last several months my oldest son has been dealing with the worst kind of bully.  This kid has called him the foulest sort of names, shoved and hit him, called his sexuality into question before others, called him fat (he’s not), told him that his bio parents only gave him up for adoption because he’s ugly (most certainly not true) and told him he was going to be returned because of said ugliness.  As a parent, this is the worst thing to watch your child suffer through, but he’s at that age where I can no longer rush in to fix it for him.  While I did email a teacher and tell him to secretly keep an eye on the situation and said the same to a couple of other teachers, I didn’t want my son also branded a tattle tale.

My young man is stoic, almost to a fault, however, and greatly downplayed the ongoing situation, so I didn’t know the extent of what was still happening.  His bully was slick and never got caught.  I say “was” because yesterday my young man finally had enough and took care of business, laying this kid out and going from the shy, quiet kid to the school hero in an instant.

We don’t condone violence in our home and never encourage our kids to fight, but we do tell them that, without any other options, you defend yourself. And that’s just what he did.  I couldn’t be prouder, and to celebrate his act of heroism, my fancy-schmancy nacho pizza became all his.

And that is how my normally eye and taste bud pleasing nacho pizza became a little less pretty, but a whole lot cooler.

You can do this several different ways, but I went all from scratch last night.  I made the giant corn tortilla and the meat, but you can substitute store bought tortillas and a taco seasoning packet with your ground beef in a pinch.  I’ll use the store bought corn tortillas here, but will post the homemade tortilla recipe shortly.
This one is so delicious!

Loaded Nacho Pizza

Oven: 450°

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1-2 tsp cayenne pepper (to your heat preference)
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup salsa
• corn tortillas, enough to cover the bottom of a pizza pan
• 1/4-1/2 cup prepared nacho cheese
• 1-2 cups shredded taco blend or other cheeses
• Lettuce, tomato, olives, sour cream, etc. for garnish

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and add the onion, jalapeno and garlic.  Cook for about 2 minutes, then add the ground beef.  Brown the gr. beef, then drain.  Add the salsa, chili powder, cumin and cayenne.  Cook and stir for about 5 minutes, then add the black beans.  Reduce heat to medium low, stirring occasionally until the beans are warm, 3-5 minutes.
2. Grease a 16 in round pizza pan or an 11 X 17 inch cookie sheet and line with tortillas.  Bake in a 450° oven for 5-7 minutes, until tortillas are warm and slightly browning, turning over if necessary.
3. Remove the tortilla pan from the oven and spread the nacho cheese all over the tortillas, as you would with regular pizza sauce.  Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the pizza and then sprinkle the meat and bean mixture over the cheese (you may only want to use 1/2-1/3 of the meat mixture and save the rest for tomorrow night’s awesome burritos or nachos).
4. Bake in your 450° oven for 6-8 minutes, or until all the cheese is melted.
5. Remove from oven and top with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, etc.
6. Serve with forks and enjoy!