Quesadillas

I know, I know, quesadillas are so easy.  All you do is take two tortillas, slap some cheese in between, and stick them in the microwave.  Right?  Right.

I make mine a little differently, and The Dude likes them, so I figured I share...

Ingredients:
2 tortillas, corn or flour
Trader Joe's Shredded Cheese
Butter

Instructions:
Apply a thin, thin layer of butter to one side of tortilla #1, and warm it it in a skillet.  Turn it over once it's a little crispy.  Place it on a plate.  Apply butter to tortilla #2, and after you turn it, add shredded cheese to the top.  I drop it in a circular motion, so that it doesn't all clump up.  Place tortilla #1 on top and add a sprinkling of cheese.  When the cheese in the center is just a little melted, turn over and add a sprinkling of cheese to the top.

What this does is makes for a crispy cheese tortilla -taste on the outside while the melty-gooey cheese is on the inside.

When it is to my crisp liking, I place it on the cutting board and cut into eight pieces.  The Dude gets 3-4 at a time, and the others pieces go into the fridge for another day.


Notes:

This is also delicious with chicken, although The Dude won't eat it if I make it that way.  You can use Marion's Amazing Salsa Verde Chicken, but make sure you have more salsa verde.

You don't have to use butter--it tastes fine and less rich without it.  

Breakfast Yogurt

Yogurt with honey.
I am out of fresh fruit today.

I eat yogurt for breakfast every day.  At least, I have for the past couple of months.  I'm sure I'll tire of it at some point, but until then... yogurt, it is.  It's filling, it's healthy, and it's really tasty.  Also, on normal days, it helps ensure that I get some fruit in me.  I've been stuck inside with a sick kid for four days, so that day is not today.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Trader Joe's plain Greek yogurt
Honey
Fresh fruit in season

Instructions:
Scoop yogurt into a bowl.  Drizzle honey on the yogurt.  Top with fruit.

Notes:
I ONLY use Trader Joe's Play Greek Yogurt.  It's the best yogurt I have ever tasted--thick, creamy, and tart.  I use full fat, because I don't like the idea of putting all the crap they have to put into low- or non-fat items to make them palatable, although this does list "non-fat milk" as an ingredient.

So.  Much.  Yum.

I put the honey on before I add the fruit because the fruit isn't what needs to be sweetened.

I use a lot of fruit.  I'll post another photo when I've been to the market and actually have fruit in the house.

You can tweak this by adding cereal, mixing different types of fruit, etc.

Yes, I do measure out half a cup.

Marion's Amazing Salsa Verde Chicken

My good friend Marion brings this in a crock pot to events and it's always a hit, so I wanted to try my hand at making it. She was gracious and gave me her recipe. It is the easiest recipe ever. And still I messed it up the first time by leaving it cooking in the crock pot for too long, which made the chicken dry. I also only used one scoop of coconut oil for five breasts (because I wasn't paying close attention to the recipe; I put everything together at 5:15 in the morning before I went to work that day.) and it just wasn't coconuty enough, although still delicious.  I served it atop rice.

This is great for leftovers, which may have been tastier than the meal we had the first night, since they had two days to marinade.

Ingredients:

Trader Joe’s Salsa Verde

Four large chicken breasts

One white onion

a bunch of cilantro

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 lime

Instructions:

Chop the onion into half rings and chop the cilantro into bits. Mix. I put them in a plastic baggie the night before, which made it easy to mix by squishing around, so that I wouldn't have to chop onions first thing in the morning. Rinse chicken.

Place one-third of the onion and cilantro mixture on the bottom of crock pot with one third of jar of salsa verde. Layer two chicken breasts on top. Add another layer of cilantro, onion, and salsa, and another layer of chicken breasts. Add the rest of the cilantro, onion, and salsa. Top with coconut oil and the juice of 1 lime

Cook at high 4-5 hours or low 7-8 hours.  

Can put shredded cheddar on top. I did not, the first time.

Notes:

Do not overcook!!!

* For five breasts use two onions if you like it oniony (I do!), 2 jars of salsa, 2 limes, 2 bunches of cilantro. But I like to use onion and cilantro as veggies in recipes like this, and I like sauce, so this is perfect for me.

Z prefers less onions. This is fine, because I ate them all.