How about breakfast for dinner tonight? I’m so excited to share these simple breakfast quesadillas with you, finally! They’re way more fresh than standard diner fare, but just as satisfying.

These breakfast quesadillas are stuffed with fluffy scrambled eggs, melt-in-your-mouth pinto beans, fresh herbs and gooey cheddar cheese, all of which contrasts so nicely with the crisp, golden exterior. These delicious high-protein quesadillas come together in about 25 minutes.

As much as I love the flavor combination shown here, I should mention that this recipe is quite flexible. If you’re in a big hurry, you can skip the herbs. If you’re looking for a lighter meal, I think you could get by without the cheese. Want to switch cuisines? I like the idea of mozzarella, basil and marinara instead of salsa.

The post Simple Breakfast Quesadillas appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

It’s about time you met my go-to meal, the quesadilla. When I’m feeling too lazy to make a proper meal, when my fridge is bare, when I come home from the grocery store hangry—I throw together a quesadilla in under ten minutes flat.

How have I not shared my basic quesadilla recipe, in all these years of food blogging? I’m righting this situation today by sharing my favorite quesadilla, lots of quesadilla-making tips, and fun ways to change up your quesadillas.

First up, a brief history lesson! Quesadillas came to be when Spaniards brought dairy products (not to mention, cows) to Mexico in the 1500s. Mexicans combined cheese (queso) with tortillas and created a number of delicious combinations, including the quesadilla.

In its most basic form, a quesadilla is simply a grilled tortilla with melted cheese inside. It’s the Mexican grilled cheese, if you will, and you can add additional fillings if you’d like. My favorite quesadillas, however, are not the super buttery, ooey-gooey quesadillas that you might have ordered at a Tex-Mex restaurant and later regretted.

These quesadillas are packed with veggies and some beans for protein. I make them with whole-grain tortillas for some nutritional bonus points and add enough cheese to make sure they’re both enticing and delicious. That’s why I generally make a quesadilla instead of ordering pizza—they’re quicker and hit the spot.

The post 10-Minute Quesadillas appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

Yesterday was not my day. I made a very dumb, very expensive mistake, and I need you to tell me you have made a very dumb and expensive mistake before, too. I hit the side of my car against… a pole. A stationary pole.

To be fair, the turn requires a sharp right past the pole, and there is no curb to protect cars from hitting the pole. Yet, I have driven by this pole 100 times without hitting it before. It happened in broad daylight outside my favorite local health food store, as I was on my way to buy these tortillas.

I called my mom, drove home and put these expensive tortillas to good use. I made quesadillas, with hummus instead of cheese! Did you know that’s an option? I stumbled upon this idea after successfully testing a variation of quesadillas with vegan sour cream instead of shredded cheese for my cookbook.

As a dairy eater, believe me when I say that that vegan sour cream recipe (available in the book) is absolutely delicious. I often prefer it to the usual dairy options because it’s lighter and plant-based, and it has inspired me to find more non-dairy solutions. I wondered later, “Could I make quesadillas with hummus, too?” Yep!

The post Hummus Quesadillas! appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

Do you have fun plans for Cinco de Mayo? It’s one of those festive holidays that sneaks up on me, like St. Patrick’s Day, and makes me wish I were a more proactive party planner. Sometimes, I get lucky and my friends use it as an excuse to get together. Other times, I make do with some chips and salsa or a green shirt.

Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow, and if you are the last-minute type like I am, I have a quesadilla for you. It’s golden and crisp on the outside, and stuffed full of (mostly) redeeming ingredients on the inside.

You may associate broccoli rabe with Italian recipes, but it held up well in this Mexican one. I treated it like kale and massaged it with olive oil, lime juice and garlic. Quick refried black beans and some melted cheese round it out.

Broccoli rabe is known for its robust flavor, especially in its raw state. If you’re not wild about raw greens, but want to try broccoli rabe, I recommend my broccoli rabe pesto flatbread, lemony roasted potatoes and broccoli rabe, or broccoli rabe peanut soba noodles. See if you don’t find yourself craving more! Quesadillas await.

The post Broccoli Rabe and Black Bean Quesadillas appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

I really love this job of mine, but if I had to pick a few things I don’t love about it, washing the dishes and photographing quesadillas would be pretty high on the list. Honestly, you should see my first attempt at photographing these triangular nuggets. The sweet potato noodles inside didn’t help, and the photos were not cute. Not cute at all.

So, I owe props to my friend Ali of Inspiralized, who always manages to make veggie noodles so enticing. She has a blog full of recipes, a best-selling cookbook and her own proprietary contraption that turns vegetables into noodle shapes (the Inspiralizer). She’s basically taking over the world, one veggie noodle at a time, and I’m really proud of her. Veggie power!

Last week, she invited a few bloggers (myself included) to Chicago to eat lunch at Houlihan’s, which is running a special “Inspiralized” menu through June. Ali provided direction and helped develop the menu, and I was so impressed by Houlihan’s execution. Did you know that they make everything from scratch?

Plates of creative veggie noodle dishes kept showing up, and I found myself wondering why on earth I haven’t published more veggie noodle recipes. They’re really fun, and I’ll give two thumbs’ up to anything that entices people to eat more veggies.

These quesadillas were roughly inspired by the sweet potato and corn “Mexicali” flatbread we sampled last week. They’re stuffed full of spicy sweet potatoes, which were easier to prepare and cook in noodle form—no chopping required—plus black beans and just enough cheddar cheese to hold them all together. If you’ve enjoyed my Southwestern kale salad or sweet potato burrito bowls, you’re going to love these.

The post Spiralized Sweet Potato & Black Bean Quesadillas appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

Blink. Blink. Blink. I’ve spent so much time staring at quesadilla photos this morning that I can hardly see straight. Quesadillas are challenging to photograph. Actually, all of the staple Mexican meals are difficult to photograph—tacos, tostadas, huevos rancheros, burritos, enchiladas. They’re all messy, round and irritatingly, impossibly delicious. I try to do them justice. I don’t even want to tell you how many photos I took of these quesadillas before I settled on the ones you see here.

I’m hoping these pictures will entice you to make these extra-crispy scrambled egg quesadillas. The filling is composed of cooked spinach, black beans and scrambled eggs (hello, protein!), which is secured to the tortillas with a light sprinkle of shredded cheese.

Then, to make the quesadillas can’t-stop good, I sprinkled a tablespoon of cheese on the outside of the quesadilla and let it fry against the pan. Served with guacamole, you have an outrageously tasty, complete meal. The quesadillas are so tempting, in fact, that I had to take Cookie on a walk last night just to get away from the leftovers. I polished off the rest this morning.

The post Breakfast Quesadillas with Spinach and Black Beans appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

Confession: if it weren’t for this blog, I would probably subsist on quesadillas. Any time inspiration and leftovers are running low, I’ll stuff a tortilla with cheese and whatever else I can scrounge up in the vegetable crisper and call it a meal.

Quesadillas, literally queso tortillas in Spanish, originated in Mexico, along with so many other tasty concepts. Although my default quesadilla is stuffed with black beans and dipped in salsa, my quesadillas don’t always feature traditional Mexican flavors. And why should they? Quesadillas are just another delightful cheese-and-bread base recipe with endless flavor possibilities, like pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches and crêpes.

This quesadilla came to be when I had chopped vegetables and dip leftover from another recipe. It was lunchtime; I was hungry; there was no more salad to eat. Enter the quesadilla solution. If we’re getting real here, I’ll confess that I was probably still wearing my pajamas because I don’t get dressed until someone’s around to appreciate it.

Anyway, I pulled out my trusty cast iron skillet, shredded some cheese, and threw a tortilla on the pan. Five minutes later, I dipped a crispy corner of quesadilla into herbed yogurt dip and took a bite of one of my most delicious, blog-worthy quesadillas yet. Sweet tomatoes, filling chickpeas and salty sliced kalamata olives, sandwiched between layers of creamy cheese and crisp tortilla, became a totally satisfying one-skillet meal.

The post Tomato, Olive and Chickpea Quesadillas with Dill Yogurt Dip appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

Sometimes I miss waiting tables and serving drinks. In my busiest moments at the restaurant, my thoughts were consumed with the tasks at hand. I furiously filled drink orders, slinging ice into shiny glasses and pouring liquor by the count in my head, steady as a metronome. I crossed the patio with three drinks in one hand and a water pitcher in the other. I ran to the back to change a keg and dragged the old one out like I had a million times before. My arms were stronger then.

There is satisfaction in a hard day’s work. My shifts were filled with smiles and thank you’s and inside jokes with my fellow waitresses in the corner. Each exchange came with instant gratification because I earned a little something for each drink delivered. At the end of the day, I left work with a wad of money in my wallet and kicked my feet up on the coffee table. I went home and I was done.

The post Crispy Mushroom, Spinach and Avocado Quesadillas appeared first on Cookie and Kate.