Vegetable-Cheese Quesadillas: Real Food, Real Fast!

Even on busy nights, I like for our family to sit down together for dinner. We always have fun together sharing stories from our day, laughing, and relaxing. It is my favorite part of the day and I don’t like to skip it, if it can be helped. Sometimes, I make dinner on busy nights by pulling out a precooked meal from the freezer or creating a leftover buffet, but occasionally life intervenes and my quiet afternoon turns into a hectic evening. Then I have to pull a rabbit out of my hat.

I have a few go-to dinners that I can put on the table in about 15 minutes. Pasta with Vegetables and Alfredo Sauce, Tacos, Taco Salad, Scrambled Eggs,and Stir-Fry are a few that come to mind, but nothing is faster than quesadillas! I can make quesadillas in under 10 minutes – start to finish. And the best part? My children love them! In fact this evening, my daughter said, “This is a good way to get me to eat extra vegetables”.

This recipe is very flexible. Any combination of veggies will work, just make sure they are finely chopped or grated. Choose your favorite cheeses and your favorite salsa or picante sauce. I use corn tortillas primarily because they are naturally gluten-free. But they are also lower in calories and more flavorful than flour tortillas.

This recipe can easily be doubled. You can store the leftover quesadillas in the refrigerator for 2 –3 days and in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.

Ingredients:

olive oil
6 corn tortillas
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
3/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup finely chopped broccoli
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup salsa

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine cheeses, broccoli, carrots, and salsa. 2. Heat tortillas in the microwave for one minute.

3. Spray or brush a skillet with olive oil.

4. Place 1/2 cup of the cheese mixture on a tortilla, spread out over one half of the of tortilla. Fold tortilla over the filling. 5. Place quesadillas in skillet and cook for 2 minutes on each side or until tortillas are brown and cheese is melted.

What are your favorite busy night dinner recipes?