Bon Appétit: Black bean and corn quesadillas

On July 3rd we welcomed our second daughter, Fiona Marie, into our family. It has been an amazing, challenging, joy-filled, sleep-deprived 8 weeks and we wouldn't trade it for the world. However, let's just say I haven't been cooking much... salads, wraps and BBQ have been our go-to meals. Wonderful friends of ours came over with their two kids in the midst of new baby craze-haze, and they brought the ingredients for black bean quesadillas. Not only was it a huge blessing, but we loved it so much that we added it to our regular menu rotation! They are easy, healthy, and most importantly; delicious. I have yet to convince our almost two-year-old that black bean paste is not evil... she eats a deconstructed quesadilla - a "deconstradilla" I call it - without the beans.

Ingredients:

4 wraps

Black bean paste - about 1/2 can (recipe below)

1 bell pepper (colour of your choice - red is prettiest)

1/2 cup corn (fresh or thawed)

Cheddar cheese

Salsa

Sour cream or plain yogurt

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Black bean paste recipe

(Feel free to double the recipe and use a whole can of beans.

The paste will keep about a week, or you can freeze it)

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 can black beans, with liquid

1 tsp cumin

1 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp pepper

Salt to taste

Directions

Heat oil in small pot or skillet. Fry onions until soft and golden, add the spices and beans and cook for 5 minutes. Mash with a potato masher, or if you like a smoother texture use a food processor (just be careful, it's pretty hot)

Voilà!

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Directions for quesadillas

Spread some black bean paste on half of the wrap, sprinkle with corn, chopped peppers and cheese.