Yummy Quesadillas

Black Bean & Sweet Potato Quesadillas

www.engine2diet.com

I made these for dinner yesterday.  And by I made them for dinner, I mean, I made the "stuffing" after church and stuck it in the frig until dinnertime.  I think this will be a definite go to meal for busy nights!  Amelia thought it was a little too spicy, so next time I'll buy a milder salsa.  (It's a good thing I left out the jalapeño it calls for)!  What I like about this recipe is that it is super easy!  I know the instructions say to bake the sweet potato, which will take forever, but I steamed mine in the microwave. OR you can buy already chopped up sweet potato in the produce section and you can boil it to make this meal quicker.  Also, this website is always trying to get you to buy their products.  Unless you really just want to stick to their recipe, I say buy whatever tortillas you'd like.  I did find a sprouted ancient grains brand of tortillas, but not the Engine 2 brand.  

So, like I said, I made the "stuffing" up right after church and stuck it in the frig in a covered dish.  When it was time to eat, we pulled them out and heated them back up in the microwave, then made up our quesadillas in a skillet and browned them.  We also added a little guacamole to the tops of ours.  There were plenty of leftovers (for us) to have lunch today.  

I'm going to keep saying it.....I am amazed that my kids are eating all of these meals!  It has been huge for our meal times and for trying new things.  I thought this change would be met with lots of grumbling, but they are loving this food just as much as we are!  And I feel good about putting healthy food in their bodies instead of what we were eating before.  

Ingredients 

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 cup brown rice, cooked
• 8 ounces vegetarian, no added oil, re-fried beans
• 1 cup of salsa
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 8 ounces black beans, drained and rinsed
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon cumin
• 1 jalapeño pepper, diced (optional and HOT)
• 6-8 Engine 2 Ancient Grain Tortillas

Instructions:

*1. Preheat oven to 375ºF
*2. Prepare a sheet pan with parchment paper
*3. An hour before you plan to eat, peel and quarter the sweet potatoes
*4. Bake sweet potatoes in the oven for 45 minutes to one hour, until soft
5. In the meantime, prepare rice in a rice cooker or on stove top as directed
6. Remove sweet potatoes from oven and toss into a mixing bowl
7. Mash sweet potatoes with the salsa, rice and fresh spinach
8. Place sweet potato mash in a sauce pan and mix in black beans and refried beans, heating mixture thoroughly over medium heat
9. Add onion powder, chili powder and cumin to taste and stir
10. Place a tortilla in a frying pan on medium heat, and slather the side facing up with sweet potato and bean mixture
11. Add jalapeños if desired
12. Place another whole wheat tortilla on top
13. Press down on top tortilla with spatula with pan on medium heat for about 3 minutes
14. Flip with spatula and cook for another three minutes
15. Voila! Cut into desired number of sections
16. Serve topped with salsa

*If baking your sweet potato.  Skip if not.