Mexican Dinner From Leftovers and Crazy Hair Day!

Tonight we had a wonderful Mexican inspired meal made from leftovers and freezer/pantry staples. On Sunday night, I made some chicken thighs in the oven and had 2 leftover. I picked all the meat from the bones and shredded it up for Chicken Quesadillas. I was going to grill some veggies to add to the quesadillas but Michael was working late and I didn't want to deal with complaints about veggies so, I steamed one of the zucchinis from my friend Tanya's garden pureed it. I mixed it into the shredded chicken and tasted it. It needed something else.

I had a little bit of homemade salsa left in the refrigerator so I add a couple of tablespoons to the chicken and stirred. That was just what it needed. The Salsa Recipe can be found here.

Next, I laid out 6 soft taco sized flour tortillas and topped each with a thick slice of Colby-Jack Cheese.

Then, I evenly divided the chicken mixture between the 6 tortillas.

We like things really cheesy and I noticed that my entire tortilla was not covered in cheese so I added an extra slice of cheese to each tortilla. I broke each one into 4 equal strips and framed the chicken to achieve full cheese coverage.

I then covered each one with another tortilla. It was then that I realized that there were only 4 tortillas left in the bag so I made 2 cheese only quesadillas. I set them all aside and preheat the oven to 350 degrees and started on my side dish.

I pulled a bag of red beans out of the freezer. I usually make 2 pounds of dried beans at a time and then measure them out into can sized portions for recipes. Black beans and red beans can always be found in my freezer. These beans were prepared in the crock pot with a ham bone and other seasonings.

I also prepared 1 cup of regular white rice and added it to the reheated beans. My boys love red beans and rice as a side but will also eat it topped with cheese for lunch or as a burrito filling.

While the rice was cooking, I heated the quesadillas until the cheese was melted and then let them sit for 5 minutes cool a little before I cut them into quarters. The cheese only ones are stacked at the top of the picture. The rest of the platter was chicken and veggie quesadillas.

Mmmm! A Mexican dinner that everyone ate without complaints! We had about half the rice and beans leftover and 7 wedges of quesadilla. I know what we are having for lunch tomorrow.

This baby ate without complaining or trying to walk around the table! YAY! Today was crazy hair day so he has red hair glue in his hair. He kept checking his hair all day giving me updates like, "Yup, Mom! My hair is still red!" Thanks, Judah! I was really worried about that!

Tomorrow night we have a cookout at church but, I will post more on Thursday night as our mealtime adventures continue.