Easy Cheese Quesadillas

What’s not to love about a perfectly crisp, cheese-filled quesadilla? There’s something awesome about a meal that you can pull together with just cheese, tortillas and a handful of random leftovers or other ingredients from the refrigerator.

I adore quesadillas for their ability to transform leftovers into something that I crave. While my youngest prefers his made simply with cheese, the rest of us choose our favorite fillings and fill them however we like best.

Making the quesadillas with a single folded tortilla is much easier than with two stacked tortillas. Place the buttered tortilla butter side down in the pan, top one half of the tortilla with cheese, and fold it over on itself.

When it’s time to flip it, slide your spatula under the open side and flip the quesadilla so that the crease stays against the pan, preventing any foods from spilling out.

When making quesadillas for a crowd, I recommend using an electric griddle. Set the griddle to medium high heat and grease the griddle with 1 tablespoon of butter. Place 3-4 tortillas on the griddle (leaving half of each tortilla off the side). Fill the side of the tortilla that is on the griddle, fold, and follow the above directions for cooking. You should be able to cook 3-4 quesadillas at a time and it will streamline the process.

Here are some of my favorite quesadilla combinations:

• Pulled pork, onions, and mozzarella cheese
• Chopped chicken, peppers, and pepper jack cheese
• Chopped baby spinach, thin mushrooms, chopped chicken, fontina
• Thinly sliced apple, fontina, and cheddar cheese
• Roasted broccoli and cheddar cheese
• Thin sliced mushrooms, zucchini, and Monterey jack cheese
• Scrambled eggs, crumbled bacon or sausage, cheddar cheese
• Roasted green chile, cheddar, pepper jack or Monterey jack

Quesadillas are delicious for breakfast, too! Try Denver Omelet Breakfast Quesadillas for an easy high-protein breakfast before school or on lazy weekends.