Thank you all so much for your enthusiastic response to the 'healthified' recipe project! Between your comments and e-mails, I now have a full list of recipes to choose from. My plan is to slowly work through the recipes over the next couple months, but bear with me if I'm a little slow at getting to your recipe or suggestion. Things are a little crazy over here.
While I'm 100% over the moon about getting married, I've started to realize that it takes significantly more work to prepare dinner in a mixed veg-carnivore home. Because it takes a little more planning, and because we don't have a single, combined kitchen right now, Joey and I have defaulted to going out to eat on the weekends more times than I'd like to admit.
I'm not entirely sure what that has to do with these Unda-Style Avocado Quesadillas, inspired heavily by 101 Cookbooks. I guess it's just the fact that I'm now constantly thinking about how I would make the meals I eat into something Joey could get excited about, too.
Take, for example, these quesadillas. Unda-style is a term used for when you cook an egg on one side of your flatbread, quesadilla, crepe...you name it. Basically it's code for pure flavor nirvana. I guess you could say it's the vegetarian's quivalent to an egg atop a juicy burger.
My man-adaptation for this recipe would probably include a little bit of shredded chicken in between the layers of tortilla and egg, or perhaps a bit of ground beef tossed with some cumin and coriander for an extra kick of flavor. And if I were feeling ambitious, some flaked white fish would make a light and fresh addition.
For me, they were perfect on their own. No addition of meat necessary.
Those of you who are married or dating: Did you find it difficult to combine your eating style with your significant others'?
Unda-Style Avocado Quesadillas
Ingredients
*1 large egg + 1 egg white
*Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
*1 whole wheat tortilla
*1/4 cup crumbled Cotija or feta cheese
*1/2 avocado, mashed
*1/3 cup marinara sauce or salsa
Instructions
*In a small bowl, beat together the egg and egg white until very well combined. Sprinkle with salt and stir to combine.
*Heat a small amount of butter or oil in a small nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add egg to skillet and cook 2 minutes, until egg is set on the bottom but still soft on top. Place the whole wheat tortilla atop the soft egg in pan. Flip the egg and tortilla so the tortilla is on the bottom.
*Fill with crumbled cheese and mashed avocado on one half of the egg. Fold in half. Continue to cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to plate.
*Top with the marinara sauce or salsa and additional salt and black pepper, if desired.
Happy Cooking!
Madison
8 comments:
When we first started cooking and eating together (years ago),I realized how much more food my husband requires. It took a little time to get used to cooking double the amount of food for him than for me. I eat meat but definitely not as much as my husband so when I cook vegetarian, I just have to make sure I make it a meal where he wouldn't miss meat.
This looks wonderful! We love Mexican food so much and I'm glad to find a new recipe to try out. The only thing that was different when we got married was the sheer volume of food I had to cook. I'm an oatmeal for dinner or small salad kind of gal especially when I was single. Realizing that hubby needed more substance was probably the biggest change and 3 years later I'm still learning. Got my work cut out for me! :)
I was fortunate enough to have the same basic eating habits as the husband. He is really easy to please and he loves veggies as much as I do!
I think it was hard to get over the "he's eating so I should be eating, too" mindset, especially when he always wants pancakes and cookies and grilled cheese with extra cheese. As far as differences - I don't eat "meat," but eat fish about once or twice a week, so on those nights dinner is easy. My bf is a serios meat and potatoes man, so often I'll just make him a steak or some baked chicken on the side. It's an extra pan to clean some nights, but I can't really complain since he has become more open minded about vegetarian and even (gasp!) vegan meals as time has gone on.
It is so fun to think back to those first meals together as a married couple! I had to learn to give myself a smaller portion than Jake. He needs more food than me, but it was so easy at first to want to eat as much as him. We also learned after a while, that we don't need to have big meals every night...some nights just a fruit smoothie and some vegetables are great for the both of us! Jake also doesn't really like to eat leftovers, so I've had to learn to cut recipes in half so I don't feel like I'm wasting food all the time. :)
I LOVE veggies. Andrew is a happy man when he can have meat, cheese and bread. As you can imagine...not an easy or healthy thing to embody. I've found good ways to incorporate his likes into some of the dishes I make. Ex: your delicious spinach manicotti recipe...I make it as is for half of the manicotti shells and love it. For the other half of the recipe, I brown some Italian sausage and stuff the manicotti with it for him. I've made some casseroles where I'll purposely make one side with more veggies and other side with more meats and cheese. Pizza...we're all about splitting it up where I'll load up on the fresh tomatoes, spinach and healthier cheeses and he'll load up on meat lovers ingredients. He will eat veggies if they're hidden. Definitely a challenge at times. Eggplant lasagna is a fun one for both of us. Taco night, I may just do a lighter taco salad but he can still have his flour tortillas. I'll do spaghetti squash and regular noodles for him when he requests a spaghetti dinner. It may be more work, but I have found that we're both much happier when we can just eat what we like and let the other do the same. I just cannot get over how after three round meals, he still has room to snack. This took getting used to and realizing that I did not have to do this along with him. It's all about adjustment and having fun while doing it! oh....and keeping his cheese and tostitos chips on hand, hahaa
It's definitely a challenge when the boyfriend is hungry again after we've already eaten a meal. It makes me think, "hmm, I think I'm hungry too!" And he's definitely more into meat so it's a fun challenge to see how I can make vegetables more appealing to him.
I just made this tonight and it was FANTASTIC. SO delicious.
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