Black Bean Quesadilla

True story: I eat a lot of quesadillas. Usually I just make a simple cheese ‘dilla for lunch. But yesterday I decided to go for something more substantial.

The reason I needed more substance was this: I got a job. It’s just a job, not a job job.  I’m still looking for a job job, but for now, I’m making money working as a hostess at a Mediterranean restaurant in my neighborhood. Since I work over the dinner hour, I have to eat a big mid-afternoon meal before my shift or else I’m starving by 11pm.  This quesadilla definitely kept me full all evening (and then my manager ended up giving me some lamb quesadilla at the end of my shift, so I kind of ate an absurd amount of quesadilla yesterday).

Being a hostess has been great so far, it’s not too complicated, and I get half-off meals after my shift, which is awesome. Even once I get a job job, I’m going to keep a few shifts a week at the restaurant just to give me a little extra cushion in my bank account (especially after five months of being unemployed).

If there was ever a picture that fully described me as a person it is this one:

The one thing I always have in my fridge is a huge block of colby jack cheese. So good.

And I’m probably a little heavy-handed with my cheese application. Feel free to be healthier than I am and use less.

I’m going to share my super secret guac recipe with you:

Just kidding. I didn’t have time before work to make guac, so I just used a packaged mix. I added some extra red onion…and at least it’s organic? Not as good as the real thing, but still pretty darn tasty.

Black Bean Quesadillas
Serves 2

Print this recipe!

4 small flour tortillas (or 2 large flour tortillas)
3/4 cup shredded Colby jack cheese
½ medium red onion, diced
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
¼ cup black beans, drained and rinsed (more or less depending on your personal love of black beans)
Guacamole, salsa, sour cream or whatever else you like to put on your quesadillas

In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add diced onions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Turn heat down to medium low, and put one of the tortillas in the same skillet. Top with half the cheese, half the onions, and half the black beans. Cover with another tortilla and turn the heat back up to medium. Cook until brown, flip, and cook until other side is brown. If the tortillas are browning to quickly, lower the heat.

Remove from heat, slice into quarters or sixths, top with guac, and burn the roof of your mouth on the cheese because you refuse to wait a few extra seconds to let it cool. At least that’s what I did.

Nacho Pizza

What do you call pizza that isn’t yours? NACHO PIZZA!

Don’t worry, that will be the only lame joke on the blog today.

It’s April Fool’s Day, and I’ve already been pranked a few times. The Washington Metropolitian Area Transit Authority decided to prank me this morning. I had a job interview in SE, so I was going to take the 90/92. I checked Nextbus and it said there’d be a 92 bus in 6 minutes, so I waited. But it didn’t show up. Then it said there was a 90 bus in 3 minutes. Again, I waited. Still nothing. So I had to abort mission and walk to the metro. Ended up being a few minutes late to the interview. Good one, WMATA!

Then I got home and grabbed a Diet Dr. Pepper. The can was weirdly wet, but I didn’t pay much attention. Then I went to move the 12 pack away from the trash cans, and realized the whole box was soaked in soda. Apparently when my roommate hired cleaning ladies yesterday, they managed to puncture a hole in one of the cans, but just left it there leaking on the floor. PUNK’D.

And then I turned on my camera to take pictures of today’s recipe. Nothing. Turns out the battery was completely dead. That one is my bad.

So I apologize, all these pictures are from my phone. Not great. But it was either that, or MS Paint drawings of the meal.

See? No one wants that.

I guess I could have waited for the battery to charge, but I was hungry…

Two things to note: This is actually only 1/4 of the dough from the recipe. I made another mini pizza a couple days ago. 1/4 of the dough makes a pretty good lunch-sized pizza. Second, it looks like I piled on an absurd amount of toppings. It flattens out when it cooks, I promise.

Nacho Pizza

Serves 1

½ of the dough made from the whole wheat pizza dough recipe (maybe you have it left over from the BBQ Chicken Pizza earlier this week?)
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 can black beans, drained
½ red onion, sliced thinly
½ cup shredded mozzarella
1 small avocado
5 dollops of sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken breast in a small oven-proof dish and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven use two forks to shred.
Turn oven up to 500 degrees.
Take half of the dough from the whole wheat pizza dough recipe and stretch it into a thin round. Place stretched out dough on an oiled oven sheet.
Place a layer of black beans (drained) on the dough. You can make it as thick as you like, depending on how much you love black beans. Cover with shredded mozzarella. Next layer on the shredded chicken, again, just put on as much as you like. I like to pretty much cover the whole thing with chicken. Toss on your red onion slices, and top with a little extra mozzarella.
Bake for 13-15 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Remove from oven and top with slices of avocado and dollops of sour cream. Slice and serve!

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
Makes two single serve pizzas

¾ cup warm water
½ tsp active dry yeast
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp plus 2 tsp olive oil

In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast over warm water, let sit for a few minutes.
In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, stir together all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour and salt. With mixer on lower, drizzle in olive oil and mix until blended. Still with mixer on low, pour in water/yeast mixture and continue stirring until combined, and dough forms a sticky ball. It’s pretty sticky, don’t worry about that.

Lightly oil a medium sized bowl. Form dough into a ball and put in oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm area for 1-2 hours.

*This makes enough crust for two single serving pizzas. You can wrap the other half up in plastic wrap, toss it in the fridge and make another pizza next weekend. The dough only gets better after chilling in your fridge for a few days.