Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Healthy Stuffed Quesadillas (+ a trick to keeping guacamole green!)

This is a recipe idea that I sort of stole from one of our absolute favorite restaurants of all time... It's not exactly like the restaurant version, but it's so so yummy. So easy, too.

Here's how you do it:

Top half of a whole wheat tortilla with the following:

- A little bit of shredded mozzarella cheese (just to act as glue to hold the next layer. There will be another opportunity for adding more cheese, so go easy on it).

- cooked brown rice with fresh chopped cilantro mixed in. (This is great for leftover rice, or you can just make it earlier in the day. It doesn't have to be cold, so tonight I just made it an hour before I wanted to eat).

- a handful of black beans (out of a can, drained & rinsed).

- a handful of corn (once again, I use canned. Feel free to go fresher).

- a sprinkle of feta cheese (you can omit this, but you'll want to add a light sprinkle of salt if you go with 100% mozzarella. The feta gives it just the right amount of salt).

- and finish it off with more shredded mozzarella cheese.

Fold it in half, and carefully transfer it to a hot pan or (my preference) a panini press (seriously, theses things are WAY more useful than I realized when I acquired mine). Let it cook until it's warm and melty inside and crunchy and browned on the outside.

For extra delight, top with homemade guacamole..! Amazing.

*this picture does not do this meal justice.

And a little bonus: Avocados, like bananas, start turning brown as soon as they're exposed to air. To keep guacamole looking and tasting fresh, just press plastic wrap directly onto the top of the guac, as pictured below. Easy peasy. Apparently, and I have yet to try this myself, you can freeze avodacos! Just mash them up, put them in a plastic bag, and get rid of all the air. Throw them in the freezer for those desperate times when avocados aren't 3 for $1. I would think you could just thaw them overnight in the fridge. I'm thinking of stocking up this week, especially since this is one of those magical times when avocados are 3 for $1.

1 comment:

  1. mmm, that looks delicious. I'm going to have to try it soon!

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