Bacon Nachos — Because Ready Is a Choice I Make Every Sunday

The house was quiet in the way houses with grown children are quiet — a quiet that contains memory. The week was a summer week, the kind where the light through the kitchen window arrives at a particular angle and the freezer hums in a different register depending on the temperature in the garage. I made notes in my prep notebook on Sunday afternoon, the way I always do: meal name, ingredient list, cost per serving, prep time, freezer instructions. Twenty-eight bags. Two hours and eleven minutes. A little slow this week, by my standards, but Brandon was helping and the conversation was good, and I have learned, slowly and against my own grain, that the conversation is sometimes the point and the time is sometimes a courtesy I extend to my husband for being willing to chop onions on a Sunday afternoon.

The children are doing what they do, which is the central report of every week of my adult life. Ethan, 20, is in the Philippines on his mission. He sends emails on Mondays. I read them on Mondays. The day is now structured around his email. Olivia is 18, at BYU studying elementary education — the path she chose at age seven and has not deviated from once. Mason, 15, is in Brazil on his mission. His weekly emails are short and full of jokes. He does not write much about the work. He writes about the food. Lily is 13, in high school, asking the kind of questions in Sunday School that make the teachers uncomfortable, which I find difficult and also, secretly, admirable. Noah is 11, the comedian, the performer — the kid who does an impression of my disappointed face in front of company, and gets away with it. That is the family report. I do not have a system for these reports. I just listen and remember and call back when I said I would call back, which is most of the time and not all of the time, and the difference between most and all is the territory of motherhood.

The recipe of the week was hot dogs and beans, which I have made some specific number of times in my life and have refined to a system that I now hand to other people in printed form. The version I made this week fed eight, cost under fifteen dollars, and required twenty-six minutes of active prep, which is within my requirements and not a coincidence. The freezer in the garage is the freezer of record. The freezer in the pantry is the freezer of convenience. The distinction matters. I have stopped explaining the freezer-meal philosophy to people who already follow my work, and I have stopped apologizing for it to people who do not. The philosophy is simple: tomorrow is coming whether you are ready or not. You can either be ready or not. I pick ready.

I prayed on Thursday morning for the first time in two weeks, which the therapist would call worth noting. I noted it. I am still a Latter-day Saint. I am also a woman who has sat in front of a casket the size of a bread box. I do not see those two things as contradictions, but I do not pretend they sit easily together either. The bench in the chapel where I sit on Sunday is the same bench. The woman is not. The faith makes room for the woman. That is what I have learned to ask of it.

Dinner is in the freezer. Tomorrow is coming. I am ready.

Hot dogs and beans went into the freezer where they belong, but the week had a loud, smoky, pull-everyone-in quality to it — Brandon chopping onions, Noah doing impressions, the garage freezer humming away — and when I went looking for something to share here, I kept coming back to Bacon Nachos. It is the kind of recipe that does not apologize for itself. It feeds people quickly, it makes noise in a good way, and it is exactly the sort of thing you pull together on a Sunday evening when the conversation has been the point all afternoon. Consider this my version of extending the day a little longer.

Bacon Nachos

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 25 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 1 large bag (13–14 oz) tortilla chips
• 8 strips thick-cut bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup pickled jalapeño slices
• 1/2 cup sour cream, for serving
• 1/2 cup salsa, for serving
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat. Preheat your oven to 400°F (or set your grill to medium-high indirect heat). Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil.
2. Cook the bacon. Fry or grill bacon strips until crisp, about 8–10 minutes. Drain on paper towels and crumble into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.
3. Layer the chips. Spread tortilla chips in a single, slightly overlapping layer across the prepared baking sheet. Try not to pile them too deep so every chip gets some cheese.
4. Add toppings. Scatter the black beans evenly over the chips, followed by the crumbled bacon and jalapeño slices. Sprinkle the smoked paprika lightly over everything.
5. Add cheese. Distribute the cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses evenly across the entire pan, making sure the edges get coverage too.
6. Bake or grill. Bake in the oven for 10–12 minutes, or place the foil sheet on the grill with the lid closed for 8–10 minutes, until cheese is fully melted and bubbling at the edges.
7. Finish and serve. Remove from heat and scatter green onions across the top. Serve immediately with sour cream and salsa on the side. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 420 | Protein: 16g | Fat: 24g | Carbs: 36g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 680mg