Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas Recipe Reminder

Jan here, with another Recipe Reminder!

What is it about some of my favorite dishes? I make them for a few times, then I stop for some reason. Maybe I'm out of one ingredient. Or maybe some shiny new dish comes into sight!

Anyway, like Missy last Friday, I went browsing for another recipe I had forgotten, and found this one from 2015. This easy dish is so good! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

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Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas

Today's recipe is an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy do-ahead lunch. It has a lot of protein from the black beans and cheese, so it will keep you going all afternoon.

Okay, here we go:

Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas

ingredients:

2 Tablespoons oil, divided (I use coconut oil)

1/2 cup frozen corn

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1 Tablespoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon each (optional - mix and match): cumin, cilantro (fresh or dried)

a dash of cayenne pepper

1 can (about 16 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

1-2 Tablespoons lime juice

Shredded cheese (cheddar, fiesta blend, Monterrey Jack - your choice

Fajita size (6 inch) flour tortillas

Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in a large skillet for a minute or so, then add the 1/2 cup frozen corn. Cook, stirring often, for about 3 minutes, or until the corn is popping and browning.

Remove the corn from the skillet and set aside.

Pour the second Tablespoon of oil into the skillet, and add the onion, garlic, chili powder and other spices. Saute until the onion is soft - about 2 minutes.

Stir in the rinsed and drained beans and heat through, mashing the beans slightly as you heat them up.

Return the corn to the skillet and toss to combine.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl, stir in the lime juice and salt to taste (I usually don't add any salt).

Now you can refrigerate the mixture in a covered bowl, or use some immediately. 

When you want to make your quesadillas, lay one tortilla in your pan over medium heat (you can use the same pan you used before - if you're making your quesadillas immediately, just wipe out the pan with a paper towel).

On the bottom tortilla, spread about 1/6 of the bean mixture. Sprinkle with cheese, then top with a second tortilla.

Heat thoroughly, until the bottom tortilla is a bit crisp, but not browned, then flip (carefully) the quesadilla over and brown the other side. 

Cut the quesadilla into wedges and enjoy!

One thing I love about this recipe is that I can make all six quesadillas at once on the griddle for a family dinner, or I can make one at a time for my own lunch.

You can also substitute shredded chicken for the beans if you'd rather make chicken quesadillas. I think I'd add a can of green chilies, too.

There's no limit to the combinations you can try.

Do you like "make ahead" lunches? For me, it saves a lot of time and thinking at lunch time when I have a deadline looming!

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Back to 2019 - and some sad news. 

If you've been around the Cafe for a while, you've gotten to know my BFF, Thatcher.

With a heavy heart, I must tell you that my little guy is no longer with us. We had to make the hardest decision last week, but his painful days and nights are ended now. I never thought I'd miss this furry tornado so much. He was a wonderful dog.

Tex Mex NY Style

How's that for a blog post title?

I'm under deadline this week, so the other night my daughter and I decided to have dinner out. I'd been writing hard all day and was happy for the break (and not to have to cook). She had a few days in a row off work and was getting restless.

There's a TexMex place in my neighborhood that I've been wanting to try (even though it's been here a long time, I hadn't managed yet!), so we went to The Santa Fe Grill.


At this point, I'm thinking how little I know about this stuff. Why is it called Santa Fe if they serve Tex Mex?  Mindy???? Yoo hoooo. Help, please.

To be fair, the restaurant calls it southwestern food. It's the Yelp reviewers who call it Tex Mex.

But who cares. The food was great.

Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a photo.

My daughter ordered Steak Quesadilla and I had a Cheese Enchilada. Both came with rice and refried beans. Yum!

I could easily have gorged myself on it, but I decided I'd rather save the leftovers.

But then I nibbled more, so there really wasn't much for leftovers. I needed to come up with something to add to it for dinner.

One other menu item was a roasted vegetable quesadilla. That gave me an idea.

So, tonight, I roasted some zucchini (yellow and green) and mushrooms. I already had some broccoli that I had roasted with garlic, so I threw that in and dusted the whole thing with Parmesan.

I bought a bag of soft corn tortillas and heated them in the pan before loading with the roasted vegetables.

Here's where I confess to the big oopsie.

When I was buying my veggies, I bought a container of shredded cheese.
When I got home from the store,  I forgot about the cheddar cheese - for hours in really hot weather.

I'm on deadline. I was not taking any chances with yucky cheese.

So we went a little international with the Parmesan and some Mozzarella that I had on hand.
Trust me, it was good.

You'll be able to tell what I did from the photos, but basically I heated the tortillas, smothered them in pre-roasted vegetables. covered with cheese, and baked until the cheese was gooey.


I doubt this was authentic anything, but it was so delicious!

Final product along with the leftovers.

Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas

Happy Monday, everyone, and welcome back, RWA Conference attendees! I hope your week is starting out well.

Mine? Well, not so good. My computer died yesterday. I'm thankful for an external hard drive and multiple backups of files on USB sticks, so I haven't lost any important files.

I'm also thankful for the tablet I bought a few months ago...because I knew my computer was at the end of its life span. But it just isn't the same. So its time to shop for a new computer!

But nothing will stop this Yankee Belle post!

Today's recipe is an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy do-ahead lunch. It has a lot of protein from the black beans and cheese, so it will keep you going all afternoon.

Okay, here we go:

Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas

ingredients:

2 Tablespoons oil, divided (I use coconut oil)

1/2 cup frozen corn

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1 Tablespoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon each (optional - mix and match): cumin, cilantro (fresh or dried)

a dash of cayenne pepper

1 can (about 16 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

1-2 Tablespoons lime juice

Shredded cheese (cheddar, fiesta blend, Monterrey Jack - your choice

Fajita size (6 inch) flour tortillas

Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in a large skillet for a minute or so, then add the 1/2 cup frozen corn. Cook, stirring often, for about 3 minutes, or until the corn is popping and browning.

Remove the corn from the skillet and set aside.

Pour the second Tablespoon of oil into the skillet, and add the onion, garlic, chili powder and other spices. Saute until the onion is soft - about 2 minutes.

Stir in the rinsed and drained beans and heat through, mashing the beans slightly as you heat them up.

Return the corn to the skillet and toss to combine.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl, stir in the lime juice and salt to taste (I usually don't add any salt).

Now you can refrigerate the mixture in a covered bowl, or use some immediately. 

When you want to make your quesadillas, lay one tortilla in your pan over medium heat (you can use the same pan you used before - if you're making your quesadillas immediately, just wipe out the pan with a paper towel).

On the bottom tortilla, spread about 1/6 of the bean mixture. Sprinkle with cheese, then top with a second tortilla.

Heat thoroughly, until the bottom tortilla is a bit crisp, but not browned, then flip (carefully) the quesadilla over and brown the other side. 

Cut the quesadilla into wedges and enjoy!

One thing I love about this recipe is that I can make all six quesadillas at once on the griddle for a family dinner, or I can make one at a time for my own lunch.

You can also substitute shredded chicken for the beans if you'd rather make chicken quesadillas. I think I'd add a can of green chilies, too.

There's no limit to the combinations you can try.

Do you like "make ahead" lunches? For me, it saves a lot of time and thinking at lunch time when I have a deadline looming!