I was planning on making crunchy tacos tonight for dinner, but I made enchiladas last night and had a bunch of corn tortillas left, so I got the bright idea to fry ‘em up and make tostadas for dinner instead.  It was a good idea!  They turned out really yummy and a little fancier than your everyday tacos.

Here’s what I used:

We’ve got some smashed black beans in the red pot (I just drained a can of black beans, added in some salsa, chipotle tobasco, and lime juice and smashed them with the masher and kept them warm in the pot on low), chopped cilantro, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, lime wedges, salsa, sour cream, shredded cheddar, guacamole, and some corn tortillas that I fried quickly in canola oil.

I also cooked up a 1/2 lb of ground beef and seasoned it with taco seasoning. Forgot to get it in the first pic.

Once you’ve got everything cooked and chopped and shredded and ready to go, just assemble it however you please! Here’s my finished product. Well one of them… :)

I just spread on the beans then topped that with a little bit of meat. Next top with is lettuce, cilantro (if you’re name is Marni or if you don’t like cilantro – omit this step), cheese, tomatoes, guac, sour cream, and salsa. I squeezed some lime juice over mine but left it off of Aaron’s as he’s not as big of a lime fan as I am. You could try to eat this by picking it up and taking a chomp out of it, but I recommend a fork unless you want sour cream and salsa to go up your nose. Just sayin’.

This got a few excited Mmmmm’s and “this is good!” from Aaron. He was pleased with my last minute decision to stray from the taco plan. I done good. It’s not surprising that a freshly fried corn tortilla turned tostada beats a crummy taco shell from a box, huh? :)

If I were to do this again, and judging by the over zealous Yummm reaction I got from Aaron, I will, I would have just mixed the chopped cilantro and lettuce together and squeezed a bit of lime on that before I assembled the tostadas. It dawned on me to mix the two after I’d already assembled about half of them. Brilliant!

I also feel compelled to say that I took these pics on my iPhone!  The new camera on the 4s keeps on surprising me.  I got out my camera to take pics and the battery was dead.  Both of them.  D’oh!

 

Let me know if you try this! Put your own spin on it and use different toppings. Tell me that, too!