Tasty Tuesday: Chicken, Spinach, & Mushroom Quesadillas

It's so secret that my hubby and I love Mexican food.  We eat some form of the cuisine at least once a week.  When I ran across this recipe, I knew I had to try it.  Much to my surprise, the hubby said it possibly could be his favorite Mexican dish I have made so far.

Ingredients

1/2 lbs. cooked chicken, shredded

16 ounces portobello mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup white wine
3 tablespoons (additional) white wine
1 bag baby spinach
12 whole wheat flour tortillas
8 ounces monterey jack cheese, grated

3 ounces mozzarella cheese

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

For the chicken, I cooked two boneless skinless breasts on low in the crock pot with water for about 6 hours.  The chicken is amazingly tender and shreds so easily.

Heat olive oil in  large skillet and add sliced mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and saute over medium-high heat for 2 minutes, then pour in white wine. Continue cooking for 6 to 8 minutes, or until all liquid is evaporated. Remove mushrooms from skillet and set aside.

Return skillet to stovetop and reduce heat to medium-low. Add a couple of tablespooons of white wine and olive oil. Add spinach to skillet and stir gently as it wilts. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then cook for 2 minutes. Remove from skillet.

To assemble the quesadillas, arrange grated monterey jack, spinach, chicken and mushrooms on top of one flour tortilla. Dot with mozzarella. Top with a little more monterey jack, and then the second tortilla. Grill both sides until golden brown and until cheese is melted. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling.

Slice quesadillas into four wedges and serve immediately.

I made a few adjustments and additions, but the recipe is adapted from Pioneer Woman's Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas.


Linking up With 33 Shades of Green for Tasty Tuesdays!

How To: Fresh Fruits

One of my favorite things about summer is fresh fruit!  I really cannot get enough of the succulent, vine ripened sweet fruit that the trees and plants produce- any type, anywhere, and anytime!  It's the perfect addition to breakfast, a filling mid morning snack, or the perfect treat to satisfy your afternoon sweet tooth.  Recently, I've found some handy tips and tricks on Pinterest that make life a lot easier when it comes to picking, storing, and serving fresh fruit.

Choosing fruit at the store or market

Tips for storing your fresh fruit

How to keep your fruit fresher longer

Best way to cut up a watermelon

Nifty trick to peeling and cutting a kiwi

Easy way to remove strawberry stems

Now that you're an expert on fresh fruit, there is no excuse not to eat more!

Weekend in Food Heaven

Happy Monday!  I hope all my fellow blogland friends had an excellent weekend.  Mine was spent Christmas shopping, eating, watching football, eating, cleaning out my closet, eating, and wrapping gifts.  Did I mention eating?

Friday evening, Bradley and I shared a fabulous date night at Cork Bistro in Park Circle.  Never disappointing, Cork was right on point for both of our appetizers and entrees.  To start, I chose my favorite, Local Tomato & Fried Mozzarella Caprese.  Bradley had a cup of the Tomato Bisque and it was rich with flavor and warmth!  For our main course, I chose the Buttered Crumb Fresh Catch of the Day {which happened to be Black Grouper} and Bradley selected the Cognac Flambeed NY Strip Steak.  O.M.G.  One of the best meals I have had in awhile!

The NY Strip (pictured left) was cooked to perfection at a temperature of medium rare, and served with baby bella mushrooms, arugula and pomme frites, roasted garlic, pecorino cheese, and port wine reduction.  The Black Grouper (pictured right) was complimented with parsley potatoes, and baby green bean, tomato & cucumber salad.  The buttered crumb outer layer had a perfect crisp.  Of course, I had left overs for Saturday lunch as well :).  Most restaurant meals do not reheat well in the microwave, but this one tasted as good as the night before!

In honor of all the football games on Saturday, Bradley wanted to make his favorite dip to munch on all day. And we did just that...ate it all afternoon!  I introduce to you the best cheesy beef dip ever:

Ingredients

1 lb. hamburger meat browned (we used venison)

1 block of Velvetta Cheese

2 cans Rotel with Chiles, Cilantro and Lime

Let simmer in crockpot until all is melted.  Serve with Tostitos Scoops!

How's a girl supposed to Christmas shop after this yummy goodness?

On Sunday, I put on a big pot of vegetable soup and let simmer for about 7 hours.  This was a nice treat for the semi-fall weather we have been experiencing and a great way to get a healthy dose of veggies!  I did not have a particular recipe I wanted to use, so I used my imagination and included a hodge podge of vegetables and broth.

Ingredients

Fresh green beans cut into thirds

Fresh okra cut into thirds

Peeled, diced potatoes

Purple onion, sliced into slivers

Minced garlic

Can of lima beans

Can of whole kernel corn

Large can of petite cuts tomatoes

Large can of tomato sauce

Box of vegetable broth

Half box of chicken broth

Water

Black pepper to taste

In a large pot, add onions, garlic and a little vegetable broth.  Simmer on low until onion is translucent.  Then, add all vegetables, tomato sauce, and broth.  Simmer on low for 6-7 hours adding water every 3 hours.  Top with black pepper to taste.

{The only thing I would do differently is cook the potatoes and green beans before adding them to the pot.  It seemed to take forever for the potatoes to become soft and the green beans never did.  It is still good, but if you like soft vegetables, I recommend boiling them ahead of time.}

There is no possible way that I did not gain at least 5 pounds this weekend. Ooops!  Just another reason to work out extra hard this week.

What did you spend your weekend doing?

...Monday has gotten the best of me!

{pinterest}

It's been a rough start to this week, but it's alright because I had a great weekend!  One of my sorority sisters is getting married in a few weeks, and the whole crew came to Charleston for her bachelorette party!  We haven't all hung out like that together since the ole' college days.  It was nice to catch up with my ladies, reminiscing of the good times we had and making new memories together.

In lieu of the to-do list I have on my desk at work, I will spare you complete details but give you a full picture recap :).

{the AWESOME cake}

{l to r: Kristen, Mary, Audrey, Carly, Lauren, Ashley, Morgan}

{back row- Lacey, Amanda, Kendal (the bachelorette) front row- Amy, Hannah, Lindsay, Brittany}

{random bar on Folly}

{Night 2: Me and the Bachelorette}

{Lauren, me, and Carly}

{Me and Hannah Banana :) }

{taxi ride- morgan, me, ashley}

{jennifer, lauren, and audrey}

{hannah, mary, and kristen}

{group pic at Fish}

{random fun outside Midtown}

{really...who wears this to the bar?}

{WINNING!}

What I don't have pictures of is the FABULOUS food I had this weekend.  Friday night, Carly and I went to dinner at Cork Bistro in Park Circle before we headed out to Folly to see the girls.  She stayed with me this weekend and we needed to sneak in some time to catch up!  O.M.G.  The food was fabulous, and our cute little table outdoors with romantic lighting helped too :).  We shared a 3 course meal, and I will have to say that this is one of the best meals I have had in Charleston.  Here is a break down of our meal:

• Caesar Salad Romaine, fresh parmesan & focaccia croutons
  
• Tomato & Fried Mozzarella Caprese topped with a roasted tomato and basil vinaigrette
• Chipotle Strawberry Glazed Salmon Herb Roasted potatoes, wilted baby spinach, goat cheese, caramelized onion with warm bacon balsalmic

Heaven in my mouth...for real!  The caprese was like nothing I had ever tasted before with the fried mozzarella and vinaigrette.  And the salmon was cooked to perfection!

Saturday morning I got up at the crack of dawn prepared a breakfast casserole for all the lovely ladies and Carly and I trucked it down to Folly for the day.  Click here for the fabulous recipe I used.  I served with biscuits, apple juice, and orange juice.  It was a big hit :).

Saturday night, the whole gang went to Fish on King Street for dinner.  This was another amazing dinner to brag about!  Most everyone decided on the tappas-like appetizers so we wouldn't get full and bloated before a night on the town.  I chose to start with an amazing chopped salad, and then a "dim sum" plate of crab wonton, thai shrimp eggroll, crispy chicken, and duck confit steamed bun.  The French-Asian fusion cuisine was a nice treat!

Now, I'm off to finish this Monday afternoon at work in hopes that it will fly by.  There may be a baseball game in my future this evening to watch a certain cute guy coach :).