Quesadillas

Feeling like a Mexican Fiesta tonight?

My family likes to do a quesadilla bar when we all gather together. It's easy, fun and oh, so tasty! There is a little prep work required, so plan ahead. First you need to get your meat filling ready:

Ingredients:
Roast, sized for the number of people
1 can tomato juice
Taco seasoning
Sea Salt
Pepper
Habanero pepper seasoning
Cumin
Coriander

Place your roast in a slow cooker. Shake about 1 Tbsp. Taco seasoning over the roast. Pour a can of tomato juice over it. Sprinkle course ground sea salt over the roast to cover it generously. Do the same with the pepper and habanero pepper. If you don't have habanero pepper flakes, you can also use a few drops of hot pepper sauce or the juice from pickled peppers. Sprinkle on cumin and coriander, quarter to half a teaspoon of each. If the seasonings are not absorbed by the liquid, rub to create a paste. Cover with the lid. Cook on low over night, or on high for 4 to 5 hours.

Shred the roast using a fork. Adjust the seasoning as needed. I am usually pretty light on the habanero pepper until this stage.

Now, on to the quesadilla bar!

Ingredients:
Tortillas ( I prefer the brown rice GF to the corn tortillas)
Black beans
Cheese
Chopped Veggies (peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc.)

To assemble your quesadilla: sprinkle a little cheese over half your tortilla shell. Top with some beans, then a generous helping of shredded beef (you may need to drain the meat first). Top all this with the veggies of your choice and a little more cheese. Why is the cheese important? It holds everything together. Your quesadilla shouldn't be too full that you cannot fold it shut into a half moon. And it shouldn't have extra liquid. If you want a giant quesadilla- you can also use one shell for the bottom and one for the top, but be prepared to flip it!

Place your quesadilla in a hot, greased skillet. If you have a meat weight or another heavy skillet, place it on top to press your finished product together. (We use oval cast iron fajita plates as weights.) When the bottom half is browned, flip and cook the other side. Remove from pan and cut into wedges. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

We usually end up eating the kitchen as only 2 to 3 quesadillas will fit on our electric skillet at one time. No one wants to wait to eat or be left in the kitchen cooking while everyone else is in the dining room. Usually the first round of people will be ready for seconds right about the time the skillet is emptied.

As with anything- check your ingredients for gluten! My taco seasoning is naturally gluten-free and the can of V-8 Tomato Juice was also fine for me. I don't sweat the 'natural and artificial flavorings' as to date they don't cause a reaction for me.

Tortillia Soup

This one is my ultimate lazy-man's lunch recipe. I actually don't know where I go it from anymore, probably Weight Watchers. It's low in bad calories and fat. There is a little prep work involved to have the ingredients on hand, but that's another blog, another day.

Assemble in a medium to large Tupperware container:
1/2 cup cooked black beans
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup refried beans
1/2 cup chopped chicken
1/2 cup broth, or enough to cover everything
Salt and pepper, to taste

Its really that easy! Put it all in a container, mix well when right before you nuke it and enjoy. Sometimes I will make a couple containers of it for when I am too busy to make a lunch in the morning. All the ingredients are cooked so it just needs reheating.

Okay, maybe what makes this one so easy for me is that I make my own refries and freeze them in muffin tins or small containers so that I can pull out portions as needed for meals. Refried beans, for those that don't know, are just pinto or romano beans, cooked completely soft and then whipped smooth. My mother likes to boil the beans with salt pork, but I'm pork-free so there is nothing in mine except beans and water. Not even salt. Cooking in a pressure cooker works best, but you could use a slow cooker or bean pot if that was all you had. In the past I have bought them from the grocery store- check the Taco/Burrito section, usually on the top shelf.

I also regularly cook up dried beans in my slow cooker and freeze the results I can't eat in a week into individual portions. I do eat a lot of legumes- they're a very healthy plant based fibre. Slow carbs, they will make you feel full longer too. Trick to not experiencing bad gas? Drain the water several times during cooking. Really, this works. If you are still having problems, apparently you can buy something to put in the water. (Sometimes I mix it up and use a pinto bean in the soup instead of the black bean.)

Then, to make my life so much more simple, when I buy a box of chicken I actually boil it all immediately, chop it, and bake it with olive oil, salt, and pepper. It makes grabbing a handful of protein to round out my meals so much simpler. Bonus: I end up eating less meat this way. A whole chicken breast is way larger than what you can grab with your fist.

Going gluten free, so far, means that I am also making my own broth at home. Thank you local Chinese grocery store for selling beef and chicken bones! But if you have a GF boxed broth, that's even easier. For this recipe, I actually prefer chicken but I will use whatever I have in my fridge that week.

I suppose if you wanted some starch you could make your own GF tortillas and toast them before sprinkling on top.

Okay, I admit, I do a lot of prep work for that makes this recipe a 5 minutes meal. Cooking for one, and then going gluten free on top of that means that I need options when I am tired after a long day at work. Pulling out pots and pans, defrosting meat and cooking a full-blown meal, after which I will have to clean up before bed, does not appeal to me. Eating processed or frozen food doesn't either. Let's face it, from scratch is also nicer on the budget.

Let me know what you think of this one!