Spinach Quesadillas

TO PREPARE THE SPINACH FILLING:

1. Wash and drain the spinach.

2. Fry the bacon, crumble, and set aside.

3. Saute the onions in the bacon grease.

4. When the onions are clear, add the spices (pepper, salt and cayenne) and spinach and cook until kinda soupy, and then continue cooking for a couple more minutes (about 10-12 minutes). Don’t cook until it’s dry, and if the spinach water starts to turn green, stop.

5. Pour the spinach into one of those large mesh colanders, and begin pressing the spinach down with a large rubber spatula. The goal is to press out as much of the water as possible. Continue this pressing process every half hour or so for about 2 hours, turning the spinach over and pressing again.

6. Stir in the bacon.

TO ASSEMBLE THE QUESADILLAS:

1. Before you start, slice about 3 of the grape tomatoes in half for each quesadilla. If the spinach filling has previously been frozen (see below), thaw in the microwave for 1 minute or until warm. If the cheese has not been grated, grate around 1-2 tablespoons per quesadilla.

2. Heat up a large non-stick pan to medium heat (this also works well on a George Foreman grill).

3. Spray both sides of 2 tortillas and place them on the skillet. Brown only one side of each of the tortillas until they are golden brown, about 2-3 minutes. Remove one from the grill, and flip over the remaining tortilla so that the grilled side is face up.

4. Immediately spread about 1/4 – 1/3 cup of the spinach mixture on the tortilla. There will be some gaps and that is fine. If you are using tomatoes, distribute about 5-6 of the halved tomatoes. Top with 1-2 tablespoons of the sharp shredded cheese (with a sharp cheese, you don’t need a lot of it).

5. Top with the second tortilla (grilled side on the inside) and cook over low-medium heat until the bottom is golden. With a large spatula, flip it over and cook the other side until golden brown.

6. Cut into wedges and add a dollop of sour cream and/or salsa if desired.

TO FREEZE AHEAD:

The beauty part of this recipe is it’s GREAT to prepare the spinach mixture and create single serving frozen servings so that you can whip it up into a quesadilla on demand. This is great for single people or couples!

After the spinach mixture is prepared and dried out in the colander, you can put about 1/4 – 1/3 cup in the center of a square of plastic wrap. Roll the mixture in the plastic wrap so that it makes a small tube about the size of a dolma or medium-sized pickle. Take all the spinach wraps and toss into a baggie and put in the freezer.

When ready to make a quesadilla, pull one of these out and microwave for about a minute until the spinach is warm, then proceed assembling the quesadilla as usual.

I usually double the recipe so that I have a lot of these on hand for when I’m too tired to cook, but want something healthy and delicious!