I made food: black bean quesadillas

Today I indulged my craving for Mexican food once again by making black bean quesadillas with homemade pico de gallo and guacamole. I decided to try using an actual Mexican cheese rather than the Kraft "Mexican blend" stuff that comes shredded in bags. I ended up buying queso panela, which I've never had before, but the description sounded promising. It turned out to be very mild, like a salty mozzarella (very similar texture too). It didn't actually melt fully, but got very soft.

There really isn't anything better than fresh guacamole, is there? Mine just has tomato, onion, lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper. (You may notice that I didn't put any jalapenos or anything in. I'm a real wuss when it comes to spicy stuff; it's really just a painful distraction from the food to me!) Alongside my quesadillas I had a salad with oil, lime juice, pepper, and some pomegranate-flavored craisins. I just love that almost everything in my dinner was fresh and easy to make! (Yeah OK, I got the beans from a can, so sue me!)

I made food: Mexican melange

I LOVE Mexican food. I could probably eat it every day. My favorite is anything covered in cheese. Unfortunately for me, if I ate cheesy Mexican food every day, I'd weigh...a lot more than I do now. So this week I decided to make a somewhat healthier dish that still satisfies my craving for Mexican. This was vaguely inspired by the adobo chicken bowl I had at Cosi last weekend.

Looks good, no? Here's what I did:

First, I left some chicken breast to marinate in grapeseed oil, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Meanwhile, I cooked some Spanish rice (I confess, it was a boxed mix!) and made some fresh pico de gallo (tomato, onion, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper).

Then I cooked the chicken in a pan with some oil. When it was almost done, I added a can of black beans to get them heated up. I threw a bit of everything on a plate, added some avocado chunks and sprinkled some lime juice, and voila!

Super tasty and pretty good for you! Next time I think I'll add some corn too!

Are you a cilantro lover or hater?