Iron Chef Battle: Nacho Cheese!

Erik and I tried something new with iron chef.  We did a dual iron chef with the same secret ingredient. We discussed the secret ingredient together and then bought it and had an hour to make our dishes.  Our secret ingredient was:

Nacho Cheese

Erik's favorite type of food is Mexican so this secret ingredient made him very happy.  I like cheese too so we're all good.  We approached this secret ingredient in two totally opposite ways.  He used a lot of fresh vegetables, cilantro, tomatillos, etc whereas I made more comfort foods (that actually featured the nacho cheese better but we won't get into that). 

He made:

1. Mexican pancakes.  Ummmm.... yes he did.  He put taco seasoning in pancake mix and made taco pancakes. Then put nacho cheese,  fresh salsa, and whipped cream on top of that with freshly grated lime zest.  Mexican pancakes.  Weird.  That's Erik.  I love him!
2. Cilantro lime nacho cheese dip.  This dip had cream cheese, nacho cheese, cilantro, tomatoes, and lime juice.   Erik loved this dip the best - it was creamy and flavorful.
3. Shrimp tacos.  Erik mixed shrimp and some fresh veggies and put them on corn tortillas.  Then topped it with nacho cheese.  The shrimp and fresh veggie combination was fabulous (it was my favorite!).  However the nacho cheese actually hurt the dish. So I think this one would have been better with a different secret ingredient.

I made:

1. Mexican lettuce wraps.  I love lettuce wraps - yum!  We had them when I went to P.F.Changs with my friends Leslie, Kimberly, and Erica.  So I wanted a twist on traditional lettuce wraps.  I made chicken with taco seasoning then put that along with some fresh veggies and nacho cheese in a lettuce leaf.  This was so yummy.  Erik loved it too!
2. Mexican lasagna.  Lasagna and peanut butter are my favorite foods. Before you get scared that I put peanut butter in lasagna, that was just fyi.  Anyway, I made a Mexican lasagna by layering corn tortillas, refried beans, nacho cheese, and fire roasted tomatoes.  This was yummy but Erik said it was a little too one-dimensional.  I'm not sure what else I should have added though.
3. Chipotle mac-n-cheese. Oh my!  This was HOT HOT HOT!  I made mac-n-cheese with nacho cheese and velveeta cheese. Then added chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Wow was this hot.  It was very good but a little too hot.  The girls wouldn't even eat it.
4. Nacho cheesecake.  Yes - I did it.  I also love cheesecake (along with lasagna and pb). I crushed tortillas and added butter and used that as the crust.  Then mixed nacho cheese, cream cheese, sour cream and egg for the cheesecake. It was actually good.  Really :).

This was a success!  The girls also made dishes as well. I gave them pie crusts, strawberries and bananas.  They made their own dishes and had fun with that.  Matthew napped.

We are going to do dual iron chefs again.  It was fun to see how we both interpreted the same secret ingredient.

Also, I made a brownie chocolate pie. Tomorrow is pi day 3/14 and I had to make a pie. Obviously!  Erik and I already dug in :).  You'd think after all that nacho cheese we couldn't eat anymore but we managed. Since I haven't exercised in 3 weeks my pants are tight.  I'll be able to exercise again next semester. This semester with 5 classes is too much (obviously exercise was the first thing to go!).

Recipe for brownie chocolate pie:

pie crust

5 squares unsweetened chocolate

1 1/2 sticks butter

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup heavy cream

I melted the chocolate and butter in the microwave. Then added the rest of the ingredients. Pour in the pie crust.  Cooked it for 30 minutes at 350°F.  Yum-O!

In more serious news - the tsunami in Japan looks devastating.  I saw this video and thought it was very scary

66 points on Quiddler today.