BBQ Chicken and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

When it comes to leftovers I'm a picky lady.  Some things (soups, grain salads, chickpea shawarma, pasta salads, desserts) taste great leftover.  Other things taste awful (reheated pizza anyone????).  When I cook something to perfection once, chances are that reheating them will turn them into overcooked soggy nasty-ness.  Sorry to all of you leftover lovers out there!

I haven't perfected my meal planning well enough yet to eliminate unwanted leftovers, so I've had to become a little creative.  Repurposed leftovers folks, that's what I'm talkin' bout.  Leftover noodles?  Throw them on as a pizza topping (Ian's style).  Leftover salmon?  (tragedy, I know) Throw it on top of a fresh green salad!  Leftover grilled chicken and sweet potatoes?  Turn them into a quesadilla!  Seriously.  Do it.

We grilled some happy chicken and sweet potatoes one night last week, and only ended up eating 1 of the chicken breasts between the two of us.  (Blame it on the late afternoon fro-yo - oops!)  The next night, the cold grilled chicken was staring at me from the fridge saying, "eat me!!!" but I just couldn't bring myself to eat reheated chicken breast plain.  Blechhhhh.  So I decided to shred it, add some Sweet Baby Ray's, and turn it into a brand spankin' new meal.  Brilliant.  

BBQ Chicken and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

makes 2 large dillas

Ingredients

• 1 cooked chicken breast (mine had been grilled the night before)
• 1/2 c bbq sauce
• 4 whole wheat tortillas
• 1/2 c diced cooked sweet potatoes
• 2/3 c shredded cheddar cheese
• ranch dressing or blue cheese for dipping

Directions

-Heat a skillet over medium heat, spray with cooking spray

-Shred the chicken breast with forks

-Stir in the bbq sauce

-Layer half of the chicken, cheese, and sweet potatoes on one tortilla

-Add the other tortilla to the top

-Cook 4-5 minutes per side until golden brown

-Drizzle with extra bbq sauce and ranch or blue cheese dressing

-Cut into wedges and serve

Leftovers?  What leftovers?  Coulda fooled me!!!  The little blackened grilled bits from the chicken and sweet potatoes added some of that sweet summer flavor we all love so much.  

Talk to me!

Do you like leftovers?

 

Buffalo Chickpea Salad Wraps

This post is part 2 in my "man-friendly" recipe series.  First, we made beef stew which was great, and I'm pretty sure Josh was in heaven with the leftovers for a week straight.  Now we have something completely different, buffalo chickpea salad wraps.  Say what?!?!

Every once in a while I crave food from Buffalo Wild Wings.  But I'm a sissy when it comes to wings.  I prefer mild sauce (or bbq) and no bones, please and thank you.  Better yet, throw my boneless wings (aka chicken tenders) into a wrap.  That makes me a happy girl.  I get all of that buffalo flavor without the mess!  

This dinner is my attempt at recreating the buffalo chicken wrap in a healthier way.  It's still 100% full of flavor and crunchy texture, but it takes a fraction of time time to make, you don't have to fry or bake anything (bonus in the summer!) and your arteries will be happier too.  It's so fast to make you could definitely do this for a quick lunch too.

I used my new favorite Flat-Out Wraps to wrap 'em all up.  These things are seriously my new favorite way to eat a sandwich.  They are soft so they don't crack when you roll them.  Whoever engineered these babies is a genius because somehow, my fillings hardly ever fall out!  You can roll them nice and tight.

If you don't have Flat-Outs you could do this with a regular tortilla, but I would seriously consider picking some up.  They're awesome!

Buffalo Chickpea Salad Wraps


Ingredients:

• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 3/8 c buffalo sauce (I use Frank's, it's the bomb)
• 1/8 c unsalted almonds
• 1/2 bell pepper
• Flat-out wraps (or tortillas)
• bleu cheese
• spinach
• sprouts (optional)
• crumbled bacon (optional)
• bleu cheese or ranch dressing

Directions:


-Chop almonds and peppers roughly

-Put rinsed chickpeas in a medium sized bowl
-Mash with a potato masher, or a strong fork until chunky (you want some chunks in here, it should resemble this)

-Add peppers and almonds, stir
-Add buffalo sauce, stir until well combined

-Layer spinach, chickpeas, bleu cheese, crumbled bacon (if using it), sprouts, and dressing about 1/3 of the way from the end of the wrap

-Wrap it up tight

-Eat up!!!

This meal was so easy to throw together and it was fun to have a different take on a "salad sandwich".  There are so many textures from the roughly mashed chickpeas to the crunchy almonds and peppers.  Party in your mouth!!! Josh loved the buffalo and bleu cheese flavors, and I loved that I could enjoy them in a nice, clean way.  #winnerwinnerchickpeadinner

Man Friendly Recipes: Beef Stew

One of my friends recently suggested that I try to make some food that had some "manly" flavor to it to appease her husband.  At first I was a bit confused by what this meant, I thought my recipes were things that everyone would like.  Then I realized that perhaps the abundance of veggie burgers, quinoa, and sweet potatoes that I have on here may not appeal to all the fellas out there.

Josh is willing to try pretty much anything that I make him, and usually likes it.  I don't have to make meat and potatoes every night to make him happy, which makes me happy too.  One time, a few months after we started dating, I asked him what he would like to eat for his birthday dinner.  What was his favorite food from growing up?  To which he replied, "beef stew".

Ughhhh, beef stew.  I'm pretty sure I had some bad experiences with day care center government subsided meat as a child, and beef stew was one of the things that made my stomach uneasy.   But, being the good girlfriend that I was, I obliged, and made him beef stew for his birthday.  (Side note - I slaved over that stew all day, and he ended up being too sick that day to eat it.  Fail)

So anyhow, as I was thinking about "manly" recipes to make, beef stew came to mind.  Being that I never enjoyed beef stew growing up, I didn't even know what to do to make my own.  So I went to the source.  The woman who knows everything.  Ree.  This recipe is made with beer, so I knew it would be good :).  I followed the recipe as written, except I cut the amount of meat in half, and doubled the potatoes.  2 lbs of beef seemed a little excessive to me personally.

I served this with a side of my new homemade sourdough baguettes (post coming tomorrow!) and what do you know, it was delicious!  Josh got his favorite  meal, and I was happy too.  I'm not going to copy the recipe here, that would just me mean, but head on over to the Pioneer Woman and she'll show you how to do it.