Pinto Bean Quesadilla

I don't know why it took me so long to incorporate quesadillas into my regular diet. When I was first living on my own, I was so eager not to be a cliché that I spent too much on food and cooked meals that were more elaborate than necessary. In retrospect, the occasional (or frequent) addition of quesadillas to my menu would've saved me loads of time and money.

For lunch today, I made a pinto bean quesadilla using the following ingredients:

• 1 onion
• ¼ cup dry pinto beans
• 2 whole wheat soft taco shells
• 4 cups water
• ¼ tsp. Sea salt
• ½ cup shredded Montery Jack cheese

Ideally, I would have soaked the beans overnight, but I was in a hurry to have something to write about for the blog, so I went the quick and dirty method. In my experience, dried beans are ¼ cup per serving, and I've found that 2 cups of water for every serving of beans is ideal for soaking purposes.

To start, I put the beans and water in a pot (plus a ¼ teaspoon of sea salt) and brought it to a boil. After two minutes, I moved the pot off the heat and let it sit for two hours while I went to a totally sweet dinner party.

When I returned, the beans had soaked up most of the water, so I added another 2 cups of water to the pot, brought the water to a second boil, covered the pot, and let it simmer over medium heat for a half hour.

At the end of the half hour, I drained the beans, which were still firm. I've never managed to overcook dried beans, and I still typically wind up with black beans that are crunchier than I'd like them no matter how long I soak or cook them for. I prefer dried beans to canned because they're less expensive and you don't have to deal with all the preservatives that are packed into the canned stuff. The next time I make this recipe, I'll have soaked the beans overnight, so I imagine they'll be a little softer cooked that way. Also, I'd like to invest in a masher I can turn the beans into more of a spreadable paste.

When the beans were nearly cooked, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and rough cut a small onion. I like larger chunks of onion, so I quartered and sliced the onion, then separated the ribs by hand rather than dicing it all up.

When the beans were ready, I drained them in a colander, then spooned half the beans onto one half of each taco shell. Next, I divided the onion between the two shells, then added a ¼ cup of cheese to each.

I wasn't thrilled about using that much cheese (¼ cup = one serving) but trying to spread ¼ cup across both shells wasn't going to be enough to make the quesadilla cohere later.

Next, I put the shells on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for 7 minutes. which was long enough for the cheese to melt and bubble. Once out of the oven, I folded the empty half of each shell over the filled half and popped them into a Tupperware container for today's lunch.

I usually like to have some salsa handy for dipping with a quesadilla, but I wanted to see how this tasted without help. The beans were pretty crunchy, but not distractingly so. The onions and cheese provided most of the flavor, while the bean taste was inoffensively bland.

This is obviously only the tip of the quesadilla iceberg (which would totally be the most delicious iceberg ever) and we'll have bigger and more exciting recipes in the future.

Here's the estimated nutritional value for the meal. The second serving of cheese really packs on the fat and the calories, and the bulk of the carbs and sodium come from the taco shell:

Calories: 530g
Fat: 18g (28%)
Protein: 28g (56%)
Carbohydrates: 77g (26%)
Cholesterol: 53mg (18%)
Sodium: 598mg (13%)
Fiber: 17g (68%)

Have you tried this recipe? Do you have your own breakfast burrito recipe you'd like to share? Let us know by leaving a comment below or emailing us at thetacodiet@gmail.com.

NOTE: Once again, I took pictures for this post, but haven't added them yet in my haste to post something new. In the next couple of days this post (and the blog in general) should have more pretty pictures to look at.