Mango Peach Quesadillas!

In our house, we love to eat quesadillas for dinner. But, we're not talking plain cheese quesadillas. We love to throw all sorts of things into our quesadillas - a lot of them aren't even Mexican ingredients. Quesadillas are great because they’re very versatile, inexpensive, and they're great for kids - easy to eat and easy for you to hide healthy ingredients under layers of cheese if you have picky eaters.

This one is pretty simple, but tasty. My method (of blending all the ingredients together) may seem a little odd, but it works. I got the idea from Rachael Ray (these quesadillas that she makes are really good too!) and it works well when you want to incorporate a lot of extra ingredients into your quesadillas. I used black beans as a protein in this recipe because they’re very inexpensive and so good for you. The Mango Peach salsa is my favorite salsa of all time – seriously, I love it (in fact, I pretty much planned my wedding reception around it, but that’s a whole other story). Well, I think that’s enough of an introduction, here’s the recipe:

Mango Peach Quesadillas

Ingredients:

12 flour tortillas (I use whole grain)

1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup Mango Peach Salsa (I use Chachies brand)

8oz Shredded Mexican blend cheese (I use one with pepper jack)

Cooking spray

Sour Cream

Directions:

Place the beans, salsa and cheese into the food processor. Pulse until mostly smooth.

Pre-heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Spray the pan with cooking spray. Lay a tortilla in the pan. Spoon 1/3 cup of the filling onto one side of the tortilla, spread to edges. Cover pan with lid. Cook until tortilla is browned. Fold tortilla in half and remove from pan. Repeat for remaining tortillas. Allow to sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before slicing and serving – this will allow the cheese to set and make it less messy to eat. Serve with sour cream

Makes 12 “pocket” quesadillas – serves 6 as an entree (2 per person), 12 as an appetizer (1 per person)

(Note: Even if you don’t need to make this many quesadillas, you can still make up the whole mix, and store it in the refrigerator to use for lunches and snacks throughout the week.)

Here’s what I spent on this recipe:

Tortillas - $2.03 / 10 at Walmart, used $.35 coupon – total for 10 $1.68, used 12 – total $2.02

Black Beans – bought at Smith’s Case Lot sale - $.38

Mango Peach Salsa - $2.50 / 16oz, used 1 cup – total $1.25

Cheese - $2.09 / 8oz at Target, used $1.00 coupon and $1/2 Target coupon – total $.59

Sour Cream - $1.00 / 8oz at Walmart, used $.50 coupon - $.50

Grand Total - $4.74 for 6 servings, $.79 for each serving

Amber cooks up many different recipes every night of the week at her blog Food For Frugal Foodies. She uses ingredients she bought in previous weeks at super low prices and incorporates them into amazing recipes based on ideas from restaurants. Thanks for sharing with us Amber!