Whole-grain veggie and cheese quesadillas

A tasty homemade quesadilla.

When we go to a Mexican restaurant my favorite choice on the menu is usually quesadillas, but I had never tried making them until the other day.  I was inspired by a recipe of Dan Eaton's Cooking at Home on Channel 14.  Here is his recipe:

Ingredients:
6 10-inch whole grain tortilla rounds
8 ounces grated Mexican blend cheese
1 small-medium zucchini, cored and finely diced
1/2 large jalapeno pepper (or more to taste) I used chili powder instead.
1/2 medium Vidalia onion, diced (or regular onion)
2 medium large ears corn, kernels removed Fresh corn from friends in Cleveland Co.
1/2 15-ounce can low sodium black beans, well rinsed
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1-2 Tbs canola or vegetable oil for sauteing veggies (plus more for crisping quesadillas)

Procedure:
Finely dice one medium size zucchini, dice half of a medium Vidalia onion and remove the kernels of corn from 2 ears of corn.

Add a splash of canola oil to a large heavy bottomed nonstick pan on medium to medium high heat and saute the onion until it softens up a little bit.

Add the zucchini and corn and a good sprinkling of ground cumin and chili powder and cook until zucchini is tender crisp.

Add about one half of a 15-ounce can well drained and rinsed low sodium black beans, stir those in and turn the heat off.

Veggie mixture.

Add veggie mixture to a large shallow pan and let it cool down to room temperature.

At that point, assemble a quesadilla by sprinkling some grated cheese over half of the whole wheat tortilla.

Place cheese on half of tortilla.

Top the cheese with some of the corn-zucchini mixture.

Top cheese with veggie mixture.

Add more cheese on top of the veggie mixture. 

Second layer of cheese on top of veggie mixture.

Fold the tortilla in half. 

Fold in half.

Brush a little more oil on top, and once the first side is crisp and brown, carefully flip it over.

We had this with some homemade refried black beans and rice and a bit of salsa on top of the quesadilla.  It was really good.

Enjoy!

I'll be trying this again with different kinds of fillings. 

Pesto Cream Cheese Stuffed Crimini Mushrooms

Pesto Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms.

These make for a nice appetizer or finger food for a party. This recipe is from Channel 14's Johnson and Wales Culinary Institute.


Pesto Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
(Number of Servings depends on how big your mushrooms are)
INGREDIENTS
One 8 oz. package white button or cremini mushrooms (I used cremini.)
2 oz. olive oil
Salt and pepper to season mushrooms (I omitted the salt.)
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 oz. prepared pesto
2 oz. grated parmesan cheese
2 oz. prepared bread crumbs (I used Panko bread crumbs.)
PROCEDURE
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Wash mushrooms and pat dry. Remove stems. Drizzle mushroom caps with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place mushrooms on baking sheet, and bake for 5 minutes to par cook the mushrooms. If any liquid ends up in the caps, pour it off before continuing. Pat dry.

Drizzle mushroom caps with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with fresh ground black pepper.

Mix together cream cheese and pesto.

2. While the mushrooms are par-cooking, mix together the pesto and cream cheese. Fill the caps with a sizeable dollop of the mixture. Top the mushrooms with grated parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs.

Par cooked mushrooms.

Place a dollop of cream cheese mixture in each cap, top with Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs.

3. If preparing ahead for a party, stop here and refrigerate the mushrooms. When ready to serve, bake mushrooms in 375°F oven until browned and bubbly on top (should be 5-8 minutes - less time if prepared straight through without having to account for the chill from the fridge).

Out of the oven and ready to serve.

These are easy and very tasty.