Fajita Quesadillas and Makenzzie

So, I decided that we would tell you who is posting, because third person is pretty annoying. This post is by Kelly...which most of them will be since Jonathan has twelve million more things to do than I do. :)
Wednesday we had a good friend, Betsy, over for some delicious fajita quesadillas. Sadly, we didn't take any pictures of the food because our camera was MIA. But we can assure you that dinner was awesome and you should definitely try these quesadillas. Not only was dinner delicious, there was an entirely gluten free option for our awesome friend Betsy :) At the end of this post, I'll post the recipe for the quesadillas, the bean/corn dip, salsa, and chips.
This Saturday, my sister Nikki is bringing up our niece Makenzzie (yes, with two z's and no c) to stay with us for a week. We are very excited about this! Having Makenzzie here is really special to us because we don't get to see her very often since we live 3 1/2 hours away. We don't get to talk to her on the phone too much either because she will not talk to us! In her 2 year old mind, she is mad at us for leaving and so she thinks that as a result of her refusing to talk to us on the phone, we come home to see her. Which is entirely true! So we get to spend an entire week with her, not just on the phone! We're both excited, but since Jonathan was in Boston the last time I went home, he hasn't seen Makenzzie in over a month, so he is most definitely ready to see her! We're going to try to take her to Chuck-E-Cheese, to the park, and some other things. We'll probably try to  post some pictures from this fun week.
 Alright, I think that's about all I've got to say for today. So enjoy the recipes! (Btw, the corn/bean salsa and the regular salsa, are both recipes that we got from Jonathan's aunt.)



Corn and Bean Salsa
2 cans black beans (drained)
2 cans corn (drained)
1 bunch green onions (chopped)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 bunch of cilantro (just the leafy part)
1 jalapeno (with seeds scooped out)

Mix beans,corn, and onion in a bow. Put other ingredients in a blender and blend. Pour over bean mixture. Garnish with a bit of chopped cilantro. Chill before serving. (If you don't like the taste of cilantro as much as we do or the heat of the jalapeno, you can reduce how much of those you put in there to differ the taste.) (Also, this recipe originally says add 8 diced Roma tomatoes, but we think it's better without them, especially if you have regular salsa with this.)


Salsa
1 large can whole tomatoes
5 slices jalapenos (Kind in a jar works best since you need the juice too)
1 tablespoon jalapeno juice
1 small onion
1/2 cap (not cup! :) lime juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 bunch cilantro (Or less depending on how well you like it.)


Mix all in food processor until it's the consistency that you like best. (We like it just a little bit chunky.)


Chips
1 pack corn tortillas
2 cups oil

Depending on how many people are eating the meal, cut enough corn tortillas into quarters.
Heat up at least 2 cups oil in a saucepan. Once the oil is hot enough, drop a few tortillas in for a few seconds. After no more than 15 seconds on each side. Since they're really greasy, place them on a pile of paper towels or napkins. Sprinkle with salt. Continue with all of this until you have the number of chips you want. (Why not just buy a bag of tortilla chips you say? Because these are so so much better, and so much cheaper! A bottle of oil is a bout $3 and a pack of 70-ish corn tortillas is less than $2. And all of this is enough for a couple of meals!) You can also sprinkle the still hot chips with cinnamon and sugar  for a sweet snack.


Fajitas
(So I can't really tell you how many people this will feed because three people ate off of this, and we still have quite a bit left over. So your best bet would be to just alter the numbers according to how many people you are feeding.) 

2 diced Bell Peppers ( We like the colored ones, they add prettiness to the meal :)
1 diced onion
1 small container of fresh mushrooms 
1 peeled and sliced avacado
4 cubed/shredded boneless skinless chicken breasts (cooked however you like)
1 pack of shredded cheese (we used mozzarella)
Tortillas (corn or flour)

Sauté the onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers just a little so that they aren't hard and crunchy in the quesadilla (unless you just like them raw). Spray a hot frying pan with a little bit of cooking spray then place a tortilla in the pan. Put on cheese, then pile on the rest of the veggies and meat that you want. Add another tortilla on top of the veggies. (Make sure there is at least a little cheese touching each tortilla, so that it sticks together.) Check the bottom tortilla and when slightly brown, flip over with a spatula, using your hand to make sure the contents don't fall out mid-flip. Cook until the other tortilla is brown on the bottom. Dip in some salsa or eat by itself, and enjoy!

Once all of the ingredients are chopped and prepped, it's quick and easy from there. Since it only took a few minutes per quesadilla, and since we each like (or were allergic to :) different things, each of us made our own quesadilla.

All of this stuff together makes for a really great meal!  

I think I'm going to go have some of these leftovers for lunch......