101: Homemade Baked Tortilla Chips

If you happen to have some leftover tortillas in your fridge, this is a great way to use them up. Also a great lower fat way to propel high fat dip into your mouth!

Preheat oven to 450.

Slice the tortillas into wedges. The pizza wheel is an excellent tool for this job.

Toss the tortillas in a big bowl with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. (Start with LESS then you think you need. It will normally be enough). I like to sprinkle on salt, paprika, garlic powder and fresh ground black pepper - but feel free to experiment.

Spread the tortillas on a baking tray, but only one chip deep. For this batch I had to do three trays. Bake for about ten minutes, but shake and turn them AT LEAST once during the ten minutes, and keep a very close eye on them in the last three minutes. Crispy and lightly browned is the goal, but there seems to be but 45 seconds between perfect and overdone.

Nachos!

Sometimes you just crave melted cheese. Without paying take-out prices.

Preheat oven to 450. Layer on pan:




Corn tortilla chips, preferably not very salty




taco meat (leftover from the taco salad. shredded chicken, leftover or canned would be an alternate protein)



black beans



shredded cheddar



Bake for 3-5 minutes. Watch them!!



Then add:

tomatoes (I used multi-colored cherry tomatoes from my last CSA box)




sliced peppers, hot or not:


then salsa (GREAT way to use up the last of jars in your fridge) and sour cream: