This smells and tastes like a party. When you put a bunch of chile peppers and tomatoes in a pan with a lot of cheese and bake it until it's bubbly and awesome, you just want to stick your face in the bowl and inhale.

Chile Cheese Bake

• 2 cups of diced bell and chile peppers (a mixture of sweet and hot is the way to go)
• 2 cups of fresh diced tomatoes (or a large can of diced tomatoes)
• a handful of chopped cilantro
• 2-3 cups of shredded cheese (cheddar, jack, manchego... whatever)
• a handful of tortilla chips

Do you see how few ingredients I just listed? Do you believe that this is easy? Because it is. Let me tell you how quickly you can have dinner on the table.

Here are the peppers. Cut these into a large dice, leaving out the seeds. If you like it hot, throw in a few, but I take no responsibility for the integrity of your tastebuds.

Then dice up the tomatoes. Season both with a good drizzle of canola or vegetable oil and a few good pinches of salt and black pepper.

Now it's time to layer. Put half of the peppers, tomatoes, and cilantro into a baking dish. Top that with half the cheese.

Do that one more time to use up all your ingredients, and crush a few handfuls of chips on top. Pop that into a preheated 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes until it's golden and bubbly. It smells sooo good. Let it sit for a few minutes to cool, and then spoon it into bowls and top with sour cream, cilantro, a few extra crushed chips, and have a party.

If you're cooking with your kids, they can do pretty much every step of this meal except the chopping. Let them layer the food, and definitely let them crush the chips with their little hands. Anytime playing with your food is legal, kids get happy. Remember, when a kid helps make the meal, it's a kid-friendly recipe despite the ingredients. And when a plethora of vitamin-rich vegetables are surrounded by cheese and chips, any kid in his right mind will go back for seconds.