Real Food, Day 6: No-Velveeta Nacho Cheese

When I told Lucas about my plan to do a whole month of real food eating, one of his major concerns was that the Super Bowl fell during my month of choice--the SUPER BOWL, also known as our junk food feast day. To give you an idea, last year we ate Super Nachos, a pizza, brownies, hot wings, and several sodas. Just the 2 of us. Yep. So... this year presented us a bit of a challenge. Most important to our food plan was including the Nachos. Now, I know we could have made these into healthy nachos with beans and fresh garnishes like salsa, cilantro, and avocado. But tell me, where is the challenge in that?? We wanted to re-create the quintessential Super Bowl food: Velveeta Rotel Dip. WITHOUT the "cheese product" log. Soooo....I put Lucas in charge of that one. And you know what? He did AWESOME! It was great! I think it definitely stood up to the Rotel dip--even more flavorful, in fact. The only downside is that it did take longer to make, but I think it's worth it to use real cheese instead of a cheese product that isn't even found in the refrigerated section of the store....

Since Lucas made this, I asked him to share the recipe with you:

This recipe came from Emeril (queso), but it differs at the end because the end of the recipe didn't print out. So instead of sour cream, we used milk, and left out the cilantro.

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon Essence, plus more to taste (Click HERE for the Essence recipe.)
• 1 teaspoon Mexican chili powder
• 1 cup chopped seeded tomato
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 3-4 chopped jalepenos
• 8 ounces white Cheddar cheese (1/2 pound), shredded (about 2 cups)
• 8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese (1/2 pound), shredded (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup canned, chopped mild or hot green chiles
• 2-3 tbsp. flour
• milk

Tortilla chips, for serving

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat until hot, about 1 minute.
2. Add the onion and Essence and chili powder and cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 minutes (Essence).
3. Stir in the tomato, jalepenos, and garlic and cook, stirring, for another 2 minutes.
4. Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir in the flour. When mixed in, pour in about 1/4 cup milk. Stir to combine. Then, add the cheeses and chiles. Cook, stirring constantly, until the cheese melts, about 2 minutes.
5. As cheese begins to melt, add milk to thin the mixture to your desired thickness.
6. Serve with tortilla chips.