Black Bean Quesadillas with Corn Salsa

The Mexican quesadilla! Around San Diego, you will see appetizers on the menu at Mexican restaurants- usually quesadillas of some variety, guacamole w/ chips, and even nachos (though that's more of a "bar food" around here.) But I'd have to say that I don't think apps are ordered much. At Mexican restaurants in San Diego, a big bowl of chips and salsa arrives at your table the moment you sit down, and you munch so terrifically on those that you're rarely hungry enough to finish your entree let alone order food to start the meal. On occasion, I might order a fancy quesadilla stuffed with seafood or grilled chicken and use it as my main dish. If you're at one of those dive Mexican food shacks that we love to frequent, they'll throw a half-pound of cheddar in a giant tortilla, melt it, wrap it up and hand it over to you. Now... can you just imagine having one of those before you've even eaten your meal??

This quesadilla - Black Bean Quesadillas with Corn Salsa - was perfect as a side for our Mexican meal. If you're anything like me, I'm always clamoring for new side dish ideas for Mexican food. The options can sometimes be so filling and fattening. This one was a good choice. It would also make a great light dinner served with a green salad.

A recipe from Cooking Light, the filling is simply black beans, tomatoes, cilantro & garlic- with a sprinkle of blended cheeses. These are all placed on a cookie sheet, folded over and given a quick 3 minutes under the broiler. Divided into 3 pieces with a pizza cutter, you may also choose to serve these up as appetizers. The salsa is a quick mix of corn, cilantro, lime juice, garlic and red bell pepper- a WONDERFUL super-easy topping for this quesadilla!

To lighten this up a little more... use whole wheat fat-free flour tortillas and low fat cheese. I would have been perfectly happy to have had this for my entire dinner, but hubby would have wondered what the main dish was supposed to be- so I whipped up a main entree too... and I'll share that in the next post!

This recipe can be found HERE.

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