This is one of those “it just came together” meals…
A few weeks back, we took the kids downtown during Fiesta week to go to the River Parade. They were serving some delicious tex-mex options in the section where our seats were located. They had fajitas, as well as bean and cheese tostadas. The kids had never had a tostada before, as I rarely made them in Ohio because the tostadas were quite expensive. Now that we are here in south Texas, there are tostadas practically on every corner, and they are cheap.cheap.cheap.
(Did I mention they were cheap?)
So I’ve added them to the “regulars” section of my grocery list. My grocery list consists of “regulars,” or items that I buy every week, along with deep discount and sale items like produce and BOGO offers, and lastly the “stockpile” section for products that I can get free or nearly free by matching sales with coupons or other store offers.
Two of the 3 older boys love refried beans on the tostadas…just like that. The other turns his nose up at beans, so he likes the other toppings. And while I rarely “short-order cook,” this meal is great…as the kids got to pick what they wanted on top!
We recently had Mexican Haystacks, and this is super similar…just seven layers, on top of a tostada. My tostada is pictured above…
- Refried beans
- Shredded chicken
- Homemade Guacamole
- Chopped orange pepper
- Black Beans
- Salsa
- Shredded cheese
Other topping ideas include: sour cream, black olives, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, red beans, avocado chunks.
This meal really just came together…I had all the right fixings and ingredients in the pantry to make a well, rounded and delicious dinner that we all enjoyed!
What would you put on your Seven Layer Tostada?!?
(Also, you might need a fork!)
Seven Layer Tostadas
Adapted from Mexican Haystacks
Yield – 4 servings, or 2 tostadas each
Preparation Time – 20 minutes
Cooking Time – 0 minutes (if the chicken is cooked ahead of time!)
Ingredients
- 8 tostada shells
- 1 can refried beans (or 2 cups homemade refried beans)
- 1 chicken breast, shredded, or about 2 cups
- 2 avocados, mashed
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 Tbsp lime or lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
- Chopped peppers
- Canned, or cooked black beans, about 1 cup
- About 1/2 cup salsa
- 8 pinchfuls of shredded cheese
Directions
- Prepare the chicken if need be. Or pull it from the freezer.
- Spread the refried beans on the tostada shells.
- Prepare guacamole by mashing avocado with the ground cumin and lime juice, season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Continue to add toppings, as you wish.
- Serve Seven Layer Tostadas. With a fork. 🙂
These look easy and delicious. Thank you!
Wow! does that look Delicious. I am going to ask my wife if she wants to have this for dinner tonight (or maybe tomorrow night). I have never seen your blog before but plan on keeping up with other $5 dinners.
How do you eat these? Knife and fork like a salad til you reach the bottom and eat the shell for dessert? How do your kids eat these? Eons ago at Taco Bell they used to make a bean tostada that you picked up and ate like a mini pizza. Not to be confused with the mexican pizza they serve today.
Thank you for the reminder that we need to have a build-your-own tostada and burrito meal very soon. It’s a yummy and very common meal in our neck of the woods. We always have large flour tortillas on hand, and add thinly sliced romaine, chopped tomato, light sour cream, sliced green onions, and occasionally sliced black olives to the choices. Brown rice, white rice or Spanish rice are good additions if I am serving a lot of people, but I almost always forget till it’s too late. We leave out the black beans, and sometimes serve whole pinto beans instead of refried beans. If it’s just us, we usually leave out the chicken, too (pays for the lettuce and tomato, and we always get enough protein, but chronically need more veggies!)
Regarding making the tostada base: I just bake corn tortillas till they are starting to get a little brown when we want tostadas. They crisp more as they cool. You can spritz them with oil before baking if you want them a little more like the commercial version. You can also just pile everything on your plate and surround with tortilla chips to get all the same flavor notes.