Tuesday, December 11, 2012

"Spinach", Mushroom and Chicken Quesadilla

After spending a good bit of the afternoon whining and complaining to anyone who would listen about how tired I am of cooking Every.Single.Night especially when I'm not in the mood and not feeling inspired, I managed to throw together an easy and really good dinner of quesadillas, using a few orphan mushrooms from the fridge, chicken in the freezer, and a mix of chard, kale, and collard greens from the winter veggie garden (the "spinach" part).


Sautee thinly sliced chicken with some Mexican herbs and spices (I used a fajita mix from Penzey's), along with a chopped onion, some garlic, some chopped fresh mushrooms -- when the chicken is close to cooked through, throw in a couple of cups of coarsely chopped greens (I de-stemmed the chard, kale and collards) and cook until wilted.  Put about 2 tablespoons of cheese on half a tortilla, then some of the chicken/mushroom/greens mixture, then another 2 tablespoons of cheese (the cheese melts and kind of glues the filling in so it doesn't spill out when you turn the quesadilla), fold over and heat in a pan (maybe coated with a bit of oil -- my pan doesn't need any oil though) for about 3 minutes then flip over and heat the other side.  I could do 3 at a time in my pan.

This would have been even easier and quicker if I had some already cooked chicken.  It also would have been good with just the cheese, onions, mushrooms and greens.

Our high today was in the low 40's I think (it got down to upper 20's last night), so it feels really good to be able to go out to the garden and harvest fresh veggies!  Ok, actually it would feel a whole lot better to go out and harvest if it was 72 degrees, but it is winter time after all.  Only about 7 or 8 more weeks until the first of the daffodils bloom!

1 comment:

Manuela@A Cultivated Nest said...

I hear ya! I too get tired of the constant cooking - most days lunch and dinner. A few years ago I suggested to my husband that he and my daughter should take care of dinner one night a week. It would be a good way for both of them to learn how to cook. So now I have Sunday dinner free and I try to have leftovers or something really easy for lunch that day. That way I feel I have one whole day off from thinking about and preparing food.

Quesadillas are my go to quick meal!