Monday, August 20, 2012

STAPLE DINNER: Black Bean Quesadilla Bake

So I have done it again. I know I've been MIA for the past couple weeks but this will be the last time that happens.
...I hope.

I have moved again, this time to an even BIGGER KITCHEN! (insert evil laugh here). Therefore I have been scurrying to try and put together my house/room. Plus school starts on Wednesday so I've been trying to deal with that emotionally as I will no longer have as much free time to cook delicious meals and spend shameful amounts of money on food to feed my friends. But nonetheless, my cooking will continue and hopefully I will refine my pitiful abilities to put together a meal.

Sooo I decided to christen my kitchen with a Collegiate Contessa Classic - Black Bean Quesadillas. The planets were aligned for this one folks. My fiancé's mom had given us a fresh jalapeño pepper a few days before and David had given me two cans of black beans the previous week. If that's not destiny frankly I don't know what is.

So let's get cracking. I added a few more ingredients to this one than I normally do, but please feel free to add some extra pizzaz to it yourself. Add your favorite salsa or veggies or obscure cheese. It's too easy.


Ingredients:

1 can of black beans
1 can of corn
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 jalapñeo pepper
Shredded cheese (I used Mexican blend but your favorite classy cheese is fine)
Soft tortillas





Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Get ready for action.

Open tomato can and drain about 3/4 of the juice into a small bowl. Chop up jalapeño and place in a bowl with cheese, drained black beans, corn, and tomatoes. Mix it up. Now you have the insides of your quesadillas! Yippee!

At this point in the process, I realized that I left my can opener at my old house (rookie mistake) and my lovely fiancé, David volunteered to run to the neighbors and ask for a can opener and make friends (if your reading this, thank you Chad!).




While you're preparing this, it's probably a good idea to heat up the tortillas in the oven for about 3 minutes. You just want them to get a little soft, making them easier to roll. NOTHING - I repeat NOTHING is worse than watching a tortilla rip mid-rollup. It's like watching a cat get hit by a car. Just look away. 






After the tortillas are soft, place a heaping spoonful of the quesadilla-insides onto the middle of the tortilla. Roll up the quesadilla, folding in the edges as you do so. Place quesadillas (I made 4) in a greased baking dish - 8x8in usually works well for 4-5 quesadillas.

1.          2. 



Pour tomato juice and a little bit of leftover insides on top. Heap on cheese!


Bake for 20-25 mins. 

So good! We devoured these. I hope you do too!



Now what? ... Nachos!



If you only make a few of these, you'll probably have a good deal of leftover insides. In order to remedy this dire situation, you can make nachos as an appetizer to complement your quesadillas. I know, right? This is what happens when I get horribly distracted and leave the tortillas in the oven for too long, creating crispy tortillas.







Simply cut your tortilla rounds into triangles, and place them on a cookie tray in the oven for 5-10 minutes. It would be a good idea to do this when you bake the tortillas for the quesadillas. Next, place chips in an oven-safe dish and pour your leftover quesadilla-insides over the chips.  Bake this delicious mixture in the oven for about 8-10 more minutes.

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