Thursday, April 23, 2009

Grilled Sweet Potato and Feta Quesadilla

As I mentioned last night, our household loves grilling. When we grill we load it up with food for few days. One of my favorite vegetables is the sweet potato (or yam, I am not picky). When grilled, the sweet potatoes develop a smoky flavor. A little melted feta is a surprisingly perfect foil for grilled veggie. This quesadilla was invented one evening in a "WHAT TO EAT FOR LUNCH" panic.

Packing lunches is one of the most stressful part of my week. As teachers, neither Justin nor I have the opportunity to go out to lunch. We also have a short time to eat each day. Each day we need a lunch that is filling, fast and healthy packed and ready to do.

Most teachers I work with pack frozen diet meals to save themselves to stress or time of packing a lunch. I have so many issues with this: the waste from the non-recyclable boxes and plastics, the chemicals in the processing, the idea that being on a diet means eating frozen boxes of this food. I admit to having some frozen burittos, packets of miso and cans of soup for emergency lunch days. But I won't eat those frozen boxes of "food".

So back to the daily lunch crisis. A quesadilla is cheap, tasty, healthy food that tastes great cold or after a minute in the microwave. This one has the spicy sauce inside, so you don't even have to pack a salsa.*

Next time you are grilling throw on a potato and save yourself some stress. One potato will make 2-3 quesadillas, depending on the size of your tortillas. They keep well in the fridge.

Grilled Sweet Potato and Feta Quesadilla
4-6 flour tortillas (I like the medium size)
1 grilled (or microwaved, boiled, or baked) sweet potato. Mashed
2-4 tablespoons crumbled feta
2-4 tablespoons lowfat sour cream
1 teaspoon chipotle chili in adobo **
1 lime, juiced

1. In a small bowl mix sour cream, adobo chili sauce, and lime juice. If you want to spicier add more adob0 sauce.
2. To make quesadilla lay out 1/2 of the tortillas. Smooch a thick layer of sweet potato. Sprinkle with feta. On the other 1/2 od the tortillas spread a thin layer of the sour cream sauce. Press potato half with the saucy half.
3. Preheat a large frying pan over medium heat. Toast tortillas on both sides until golden brown.
4. Cut into quarters and enjoy, or wrap up for lunch.


*Sorry for the horrid picture. I took it at school. I do reuse my tin foil all week - then off to recycle!

** Canned chipotle adobo chiles are found with the Hispanic food. A small can can last for a long time. I usually use one or 2 chiles and then freeze the rest. Put the contents of the can into a plastic ziplock and flatten it. When you need some you can break off a little bit easily because it is thinly spread. It is a smoky, very spicy condiment. (Try it in a pot of chili!)

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