Paleo Quesadillas!

Post by Ashley

These take a little more work than tearing into a package of store bought flour or corn tortillas but the result is totally worth it (not to mention better for you).  This is definitely not a meal for a busy weekday but perfect for the weekend.

Tools:

-          Rolling pin

-          Measuring cup

-          Measuring spoons

-          Mixing bowl

-          Parchment paper

-          Cookie sheets

-          Frying pan

-          Spatula

Grocery List:

For tortillas (or tortilla chips if you’d rather)

-          Almond meal  - can find at some grocery stores, but I’ve only found it at whole foods here

-          Whole leaf kale – could probably use spinach too if kale scares you

-          Eggs

-          Salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper* (optional but I like spicy things)

For quesadillas

-          1 lb Lean meat (we used chicken) cooked and chopped into small pieces (spiced any way you like)

-          Shredded cheese (we used 2% milk Mexican cheese blend)

Extras

-          Salsa (make your own or use your favorite premade kind, just read the label and watch out for sugar and high fructose corn syrup)

-          Avocado (we made a quick guacamole using 1 small avocado, lime juice, salt, pepper, garlic powder and dried cilantro)

-          Sour cream, or better yet, greek yogurt (this is an awesome substitute for sour cream and has lots of protein)

Making tortillas:

Ingredients – (this makes about 5 tortillas, so feel free to half the recipe if you don’t think you’ll be needing that many)

-          1 ¾ cups almond meal

-          1 ¾ cups kale (or spinach) – pulsed in blender or food processor until pieces are very small

-          2 whole eggs

-          3 egg whites

-          2 tsp salt

-          2 tsp pepper (or more if you like)

-          1 tbsp garlic powder

-          1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Put ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until everything looks combined and you have a paste.

Spoon about 1/3 cup of the mixture onto a piece of parchment paper the size of a cookie sheet and cover with another piece of parchment paper of the same size.  Using a rolling pin to gently roll the paste into somewhat of a circle that is about as thin as a normal flour tortilla.

Gently peel back the top piece of parchment (save and reuse this for the rest of your tortillas) and place the other piece of parchment and your tortilla on a cookie sheet.

I apologize for the terrible iPhone picture, but this is what you're tortilla will look like.

(if you're making tortilla chips instead of tortillas, now is when you would gently cut your tortilla into pieces with a pizza cutter)

Bake for approximately 10 – 12 minutes.  Tortilla should pull away from parchment easily and be pliable.  (Just be careful when you’re pulling it off the paper because you can easily tear it, which would leave you with delicious tortilla chips, but that’s not what we’re going for here)

Repeat until all the tortilla mixture has been used.

To make Quesadillas, (for those of you who have never made one before)

Set the frying pan burner on a medium heat and let it preheat for a minute.  I used a little butter to keep everything from sticking.  Place tortilla in the hot frying pan and add a good amount of cheese to one half of the tortilla (cheese is what holds everything together), then add a handful of whatever meat you’re using (or veggies if you prefer) and more cheese on top.  Fold the other half of the tortilla over your fillings and cover the frying pan with a lid or cookie sheet for about 1 minute.  Carefully flip (this is tricky) the quesadilla and cook the other side, covered for about 1 minute, or long enough so that the cheese melts.  Cut into wedges and eat!  We put salsa and guacamole on ours.  (We forgot Greek yogurt, this time but won’t let it happen again.)

again, sorry for the picture quality...but it still looks amazingly tasty

To be honest, this whole process took about 45 minutes, but it was worth it, and I could have made the tortilla batter ahead of time.  This was way better than any nacho night we’ve had yet.  Our tummies were happy and full but NOT bloated and uncomfortable.  Love this diet.

- I will make an effort to take better pictures from now on...iPhone is good in a pinch though.