As I posted yesterday, we decided on Veggie Quesadillas for our second dinner without meat via the Change Your Life Challenge. Our Toasted Raviolis were incredible but I felt like I was missing an opportunity to include veggies in meatless meal.
Just as a side rant, I get really frustrated with the lack of all natural and/or organic bread selections at regular grocery stores (not Whole Foods or Trader Joe's). Our local store is Dierberg's and they have an outstanding organic and natural selection of most everything else, except bread! I think they carry 1 true all natural bread brand, and no organic (that I've seen, anyway).
So when I went to buy tortillas, I was super annoyed that they all had ingredient lists the size of my arm. I finally found organic tortillas in the refrigerated section. I don't mind going to Whole Foods for most items but because it's located close to work and not home, it's not always convenient.
Now that I've finished ranting, let me tell you about the ingredients I used:
1 package flour tortillas
1 package all natural Mexican mixed cheese
1 can black beans
1 can green chilies
1 bag frozen corn
1 pepper
1 avocado
1 red onion
Salsa and sour cream, for topping
(Yields about 6 full quesadillas, give or take. You may want more cheese)
This was my first experience cooking with an avocado. Without meat, I wanted to make sure I had plenty of nutrients in my dinner and avocado fits right in with our quesadillas! I peeled it and chopped half (I also cooked the corn at this time, following bag directions).
I had one wilting, dying orange pepper left in the fridge so I chopped 'er up.
Then, we mixed our corn salsa. We've found this is the perfect topping for any Mexican dish. Last time, we used green peppers instead of green chilies but we really enjoyed the green chilies more. Just added a ton more flavor! In this mix, we included organic corn, organic black beans, organic red onion, and green chilies.
We first heated up the tortillas on the skillet for a minute or two on medium high heat. We took them off, and threw one back on. We layered cheese first, then our corn salsa, then orange pepper, then avocado. It makes for one thick quesadilla, so I tried to smush a bit. Then we threw more cheese on top, and another tortilla!
(Look at all those colors!)
It only takes about two minutes on each side (Matt is a fantastic quesadilla flipper). Your goal is for all the cheese to be melted and the tortillas to be somewhat brown. When they're done, they look like this (and taste fantastic!):
I was certain I'd want another 'dilla but instead, was super full after one! It was excellent and I brought the ingredients for the microwave version for work-lunch today.
This morning, I had another Chocolate Pumpkin Muffin for breakfast with a small glass of organic skim milk. In my lunchbox I brought:
+organic banana
+organic hard-boiled egg
+organic raspberries
+ingredients for another nomtastic quesadilla!
For now, I must go work and eat my many snacks. Today will be a quick day, as I have an afternoon meeting, but tonight we're going to pick up our new bar stools and get a Chipotle Veggie Bowl or maybe Olga's (my weakness)?
(Food decisions always excite me!)
What are your plans for the day? Any exciting food plans coming up?
agh dont go to olga's! i couldnt go there and not get an 'olga'! and none of those for you this week.
ReplyDeletehaha
but the quesedilla looks awesome! i make them on my stove all the time with just tortillas and cheese, but i should add more veggies!
avacado and cheese makes everything better :) I mostly eat chips and quesadillas as an excuse for SALSA.
ReplyDeleteyeah you're right. tortillas are impossible to find. most of them are a meal in and of themselves and the others (flatout!?) taste funky. those ones look good though
Those look so good- {We had quesadillas last night, but I just slapped some chicken and cheese in there and called it a night} Next time I'm trying this!
ReplyDeleteI had a quesadilla for lunch! Twins <3 haha
ReplyDeleteThat looks delicious, seriously.
I had planned on making tons of amazing food this week, but unfortunately a lot of it fell by the way-side with all of my other plans, but hopefully tomorrow I can get myself to the grocery store and make something super yummy. I'm just not quite sure what yet.
@Lauren - We didn't go to Olga's! hahah but when I do go, I don't get a regular Olga, I get a salad, zucchini fries, and a 3-cheese Olga, which is bad.
ReplyDelete@rjinmaine flatouts are definitely not good. i don't even think they taste good! tortillas are nearly impossible unless i'm at whole foods. the ones i bought were good! tasting and ingredient-wise.
@Blair - Chicken and cheese are good too! I love plain cheese quesadillas actually :)
@Mon - 'Dillas are awesome Veg foods :D...have you made a soup yet? Stir-fry? We're doing stir-fry tomorrow!
Those look dee-lish!! :D Nice work! Hope Veggie Week is going well for you!
ReplyDeleteomg these look SO GOOD! I'm so unimaginative when it comes to dinner, this would've ended up being a cheese quesadilla if it were me haha. And I'm with you about the Schnuck's/Dierberg's dilemma.. I hate spending so much money at TJ's/Whole Foods but sometimes it's the only way! :(
ReplyDelete@Caroline - It's going great! Are you still in Veggie Month?? How's that?
ReplyDelete@Ella Trust me, I've come a long way with what I'm willing to cook and try! and Dierberg's does have an AWESOME variety of organic foods but Whole Foods has everything so I have to go there sometimes, like you said. Going there today actually :)
That looks so yummy.. I am going to have to try it for myself!
ReplyDeleteVeggie Month is over for me...had my first turkey sammich today. It was...weird! Haha. Working on a blog about the month to be posted soon. Honestly, it was pretty awesome. Discovered some love for foods in the vegetarian diet.
ReplyDelete