Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas

These sweet and savory quesadillas are a crowd favorite, perfect for sharing! Dress them up with extra veggies if you like. This recipe comes to us from our friends at Produce for Kids.

Cooking Tip of the Week: Try making your own taco seasoning! Use a mix of spices like chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. Store your mix in an air-tight container to use in many recipes.

Food for Thought: Microwaves are an easy and convenient way to cook foods like the sweet potatoes in this recipe. Have you ever wondered how they work? Microwaves give off safe radio waves set at just the right frequency to create heat in the water molecules in food. All food has some water in it, but that’s why something very wet like soup will take longer to heat up in a microwave than something dry like bread.

Family Dinner Conversation Starter: What do you want to be the best at, such as playing a sport or an instrument? What will you have to do to become the best?

Ingredients:

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 can low-sodium black beans, drained, rinsed
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 Tbsp. low-sodium taco seasoning
• 8 whole wheat tortillas
• 1 cup lowfat shredded Monterey Jack cheese or dairy-free cheese

Directions:

Kid: Prick sweet potato with fork and microwave for 5 minutes on HIGH. Let cool slightly.

Together: Cut in half lengthwise and scoop flesh into large bowl. Mash until smooth.

Kid: Add beans, cilantro and seasoning to sweet potato and mix well.

Adult: Heat skillet over medium heat.

Together: Spread sweet potato mixture evenly on one side of tortilla, sprinkle with cheese and place second tortilla on top.

Adult: Cook 3 – 4 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Flip and cook 2 – 3 minutes. Repeat with remaining tortillas and mixture.