Crispy Quesadilla with Spinach, Black Bean, and Tomato

This was a super quick lunch I made about a week ago. Basically, I assembled the quesadilla  in the following order: corn tortilla, cheddar, spinach, black bean, tomato, cheddar, corn tortilla.

This looks like Pac Man...

Instead of trying to flip this bad boy in the pan, I actually put both tortillas in the pan (just sprayed them with cooking spray first) on high heat. I piled the layers on to one, and just cheddar onto the other. After the tortillas started to crisp up, I put the loaded one on a plate, and topped it with the other. The melty cheese acted as glue, and the veggies got just warm enough to get tender. I garnished it will my favorite-- some Greek yogurt. The crispy texture of the tortillas was really good, though they were difficult to eat without making a mess. Luckily this meal was just for me, and not part of a date night :)


**oh, I remember this not being bland, so I'm pretty sure I had some cayenne or chili powder sprinkled on the black beans....

Shrimp Quesadillas and Warm Acini di Pepe and Corn Salad

***this post is 2-3 weeks late, and is very much out of order. oops!

Last night's dinner was good. Really good, in fact. So good that I ate leftovers for breakfast! I made shrimp quesadillas (inspired by Pionner Woman's Quesadillas de Camarones) and this warm corn and pasta salad my mom used to make.

Shrimp Quesadillas --  (serves two with leftovers)
The quesadillas were a little higher calories than I'd normally like to eat for dinner, but I think the future I could just use one tortilla and a little less cheese. Otherwise, they are very healthful. Lot's of veggies, a little protein-- what's not to love?

• 8 shrimp, deveined and peeled
• half a yellow onion, diced
• 1 small green pepper, diced
• 1 small red pepper (I used half a large, but same idea), diced
• four whole grain tortillas, sprayed lightly with cooking spray
• olive oil
• red taco sauce
• colby jack cheese 

Pioneer Woman does a fantastic tutorial for how to assemble these, but basically you sautee the veggies til they are soft, then cook the shrimp in the red sauce and chop it all up. Then you assemble quesadillas-- tortilla, cheese, veggies, shrimp, cheese, tortilla. Cook long enough to heat through and melt cheese. Cut into pieces and enjoy!

Acini di Pepe and Corn Salad
Have you ever seen acini di pepe in the past aisle? They are like tiny dots of pasta-- as if someone took spaghetti noodles to a mandolin. They almost act like couscous in this dish, which I'm sure could be used instead. Also, at some grocery stores it's easier to find pasta stars. As long as you use something grainy that is smaller than a corn kernal, you are set!

• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• sea salt
• 4 oz acini di pepe (or whatever you use)
• 1 cup or so frozen corn kernels

Boil acini with package instructions. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a saute pan and then cook garlic until translucent. Throw in the scallions and plenty of sea salt. When the pasta is done and drained, add it and the frozen corn to the pan and toss around. The corn cooks almost immediately, and you don't want to over cook it because you want to keep it nice and crisp. Garnish with more scallions on top, and enjoy!

"Vegetarian" Tortilla Soup

I love soup. It can take on many flavors, textures, and temperatures but it is always soothing and comforting. Soup makes you feel like home, no matter where you are or how lousy you feel. This is why I love not only making and eating soup, but taking soup to my friends who are feeling ill or down. No other food has magical healing and cheering powers like soup! And I especially love soup because it is so easy to make.

Thursday night was a perfect soup night-- it was a chilly and rainy day, at the (almost) end of a frantic shortened week, and most importantly I was hungry and needed something fast! As I said, soup is incredibly easy to make, especially when you cheat and use lots of canned ingredients as I did (see below); but with the inclusion of just a few fresh ingredients you can make each pot of soup special and unique. Plus, you can use up leftover produce with soup before it goes bad!

"Vegetarian" Tortilla Soup serves two (or one with lunch the next day!)
 First off, a note-- I call this "vegetarian" because I did not actually use chicken in the soup, but I used chicken stock (because I had it on hand). This could easily be made with vegetable stock to make it truly vegetarian, or you could make it truly chicken tortilla soup by adding diced or shredded chicken.

• 1/2 a red (because that's what I had) onion, diced
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1/2 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can Rotell tomato & chile (you could also use a can of tomatoes and a can of green chiles... or fresh tomatoes and fresh chiles... or some combo of any of these things)
• Enough chicken (veggie?) stock to make the soup as broth-y or chunk-y as you like (I am a chunk person)
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, rough chopped, plus more for garnish
• 1/2 avocado chopped (the other half of my avocado was all black and rotten)

Garnish:

• cilantro
• poblano yogurt I made yesterday
• tortilla strips (I don't like limp tortillas, so I pan fried them in a teaspoon of oil for about 90 seconds)
• 1 TBSP shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

The base of most soups is some combination of onion or celery. In this case, I had half a red onion and no celery so I just went for it. I sauteed the onion for about 5 minutes and then I dumped in the corn, beans, and tomatoes, and poured broth over it all. Typically I add a lot of seasonings to my soups, but the rotell tomatoes have decent flavor and spice so I honestly didn't add anything. I brought the soup to a boil, then I removed it from the heat and stirred in the cilantro and avocado (I wanted the flavor but didn't want to cook it too much). To serve it, I garnished it with the leftover cilantro, a dollip of my poblano yogurt from yesterday (which promptly sunk to the bottom, whoops!), tortilla strips, and a bit of cheddar cheese.

Despite taking only 10  minutes to prepare and requiring hardly more than a can opener, this soup was flavorful, filling, and definitely made me feel warm and cozy inside just as soup should!