Black Bean Quesadilla with homemade Taco Bell sauce

It was quesadilla night. Not that I have a particular night for them but I had the ingredients and it's such an easy throw together meal. But then I remembered finding the Taco Bell Quesadilla sauce, aka jalapeño sauce, recipe and decided to make it, too. I need to keep this on hand at all times.

You can google it and find the same recipe all over the web.

Taco Bell Quesadilla Sauce Recipe:

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons minced jalapenos, slices
• 2 teaspoons jalapeno juice, from minced jalepenos
• 3/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 dash salt

I used canned jalapeños and put everything into my little food processor. I whirred it until it was smooth. The key is to let it set in the fridge for at least an hour so the flavors blend.


Black Bean Quesadillas:


small whole wheat tortillas
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 avocado, mashed
Taco Bell sauce
shredded monterey jack cheese

Heat skillet on medium heat. Place one tortilla in pan, spread quesadilla sauce and avocado on tortilla. Add black beans.

Add the cheese.

Place another tortilla on top and flip it over once the bottom one has browned slightly.  Once you flip it over, it will brown quickly so stand at the ready.

This was creamy on the inside and crispy on the outside. It was perfect. Not too spicy and all of the flavors blended so well.  I had salsa at the ready but ended up not using it. And it was very filling. 

Salsa Burgers

This is one of the best burgers I've ever had. At least one that I've made.  I found the recipe in Clean Eating Magazine July 2011.

1 lb lean ground beef
1/3 cup fresh pico de gallo or salsa, well drained (Recipe for pico de gallo follows)
1/4 tea. Kosher salt
1/4 tea. pepper
1 small avocado, roughly chopped
1/4 red bell pepper, finely chopped
3 tbl chopped fresh cilantro
2 tea fresh lime juice
1/4 tea garlic powder
multigrain hamburger buns

For pico de gallo I used:
1 small tomato, seeded and chopped
1 small jalapeño, seeded and chopped
1/2 small yellow onion, chopped
a small handful of cilantro leaves
salt and pepper
Juice from 1 small lime.

I put all of the pico de gallo ingredients into a food processor and chopped until fine.

For the burgers:

Mix the ground beef with the well drained pico de gallo, salt and pepper. I squeezed as much liquid out as I could before adding it to the meat. Make into 4 patties and either grill or broil until done.  

While the burgers are cooking make the guacamole.  Mash the avocado, add red bell pepper, cilantro, lime juice, garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste.  Stir to combine. 

The magazine suggests using plain Greek yogurt as a condiment but I went with regular mayonnaise.  It wasn't necessary. The avocado spread was plenty creamy and SO flavorful. 

The burgers were outstanding. Full of flavor and not a bit too try, which often happens to my burgers often.  

Pop Tart 12 Step Group?

I fell off the Pop Tart wagon last night. My daughter was having a very bad day and needed a nap. So I took one with her. This was early afternoon, which is usually when I require a snack to prevent a blood sugar crash. Since I slept through that, I woke up shaky, but had a still upset child to address first. By the time I was able to eat something I was starving so I ate almost a bag of veggie straws. Then I felt ill from over eating.

Cut to later....I had no room for supper. Got the child in bed and started to feel the signs of another blood sugar crash. Luckily I had some cut up baked chicken in the fridge waiting to made into a salad. I ate that and felt better..but not satisfied. I wanted something. Something bad.  A pop tart. I am a recovering pop tart addict. I ate them at least once daily for years. I have them on hand for Willa because she likes them and she likes so few things.

I pushed aside the guilt and ate a blueberry, frosted pop tart. And it was wonderful.  Until the following morning. Turns out my stomach no longer prefers processed food. That's all I'll say.  So as of today it is full-on pop tart abstinence for me.  It's a day of mourning.

Smoked Paprika Pork Tenderloin with Succotash

Is there any meat better than a pork tenderloin?  This meal was done in 30 minutes. It would have taken less time if I had chopped my vegetables when I brought them home. The recipe calls for cumin and smoked paprika, two spices I go through pretty fast. However, in this case, I think next time I would omit the cumin. It overpowered the paprika. Of course that could be because I don't so much measure as guess. And my hand slipped a little when adding the cumin. But look how pretty:

From The Best of Clean Eating 2 cookbook.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil 

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp cumin

salt and pepper

1 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat and silver skin, cut into medallions (I cut mine into chunks)

1/2 a medium sized white (I used yellow) onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

1 cup frozen baby lima beans, thawed

2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

In a small bowl, add 1 tsp oil and the pork. Coat with the oil, season with cumin, paprika and a little salt. Coat the pieces well and set aside.  

Place 1 tsp oil in sauté pan and add onions and peppers. Sauté until a little soft.  Add the corn and lima beans and season with salt and pepper. Heat through, remove from the pan and keep warm.

Heat the last tsp of oil in the pan on med-high and cook the pork until browned and no longer pink in the middle. The time it takes will depend on how thick your pieces are. 

Add the cilantro to the succotash and stir. Serve the vegetables with the pork. 

This was a very fulfilling and good meal. I would make it again with some adjustments. Like I said, I don't think I'd use cumin. 

According to the cookbook, lima beans contain about 24% of the recommended daily protein intake and 40% of the day's fiber.  

Clean Eating Curried Chicken

Here's another winner from the Clean Eating 2 cookbook. Curried chicken.

Ingredients:

1 c. brown rice

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 c. chopped scallions

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed

2 Tbsp. curry powder

1 c. low sodium chicken broth

1/2 c. frozen peas

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

salt and pepper to taste

Cook the brown rice following the package instructions.

Heat oil in a large skillet on medium-high and add scallions and garlic. Cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently.  Add chicken and cook until browned on all sides. (the cookbook says this will take about 2 minutes. I don't know what kind of stove they have, but mine won't accomplish that in 2 min unless it's on high heat.)  

Add curry powder to the chicken stock and whisk to blend.  Pour into skillet and bring to a simmer. Simmer until chicken is cooked through, 2-5 minutes. Add frozen peas and cook until they are just tender. Remove from heat and add cilantro, salt and pepper.

Serve with the brown rice.

This was a nice, mild curry. And the whole house smelled fantastic. Willa loved the peas and the rice so the curry wasn't too strong for her at all.  

Blackberry Blueberry smoothie

I have one of those kids who won't drink milk. She never has. I've tried chocolate milk but that only worked for a day or two. No to strawberry milk. No to almond milk.  But YES to yogurt, including Greek yogurt. So now I'm making her smoothies using Greek yogurt.

I like to use fresh fruit but was out so I threw together this:

1 container of yogurt

1 container of the applesauce

a squeeze of honey

a tablespoon of wheat germ

half of a frozen banana

a splash of water

Blend until smooth.

I loved this one.  It's sweet and slightly tart all at the same time. I asked Willa, 21 months,  if she liked it and she said it was "good in mouth!" So I'll take that as a yes. 

Chicken and Black Bean Grilled Sandwiches

This recipe came from my Clean Eating 2 cookbook. The only thing I changed was the bread because it said to slice a baguette into 32 slices and make 16 little sandwiches. I needed to be able to make something fast so I used whole grain sourdough bread slices and make 4 sandwiches.

Cooked chicken: I cooked 6 chicken cutlets on the stove top and cut them up into little pieces once they were done. What ever chicken didn't make it onto a sandwich can be used tomorrow for something else.  You could also use Rotisserie chicken that's already cooked. Any chicken will do is the point.

Heat a frying pan on medium heat.

1 cup cooked black beans (if canned make sure they are drained and rinsed.)
2 teaspoons dried cilantro. I had fresh so I tore off half a palmful.
1/4 c. water
salt
cayenne pepper (I used about a teaspoon of chili powder instead)

Blend the above 5 ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
Spread the black bean mix onto the bread slices, top with chicken and shredded cheddar cheese (about 1 tablespoon.) Top with another slice of bread.

Spray each side of the sandwich with olive oil cooking spray and place in pan. I put a press on top of the sandwiches so they would grill nicely.

Cook each side a few minutes or until the cheese is melted and the bread is toasty.

Now maybe it's because my blood sugar was low but these were excellent. I could have upped the chili powder so next time I'll add more.