Black Bean Quesadillas with Cream Cheese

I stole this simple recipe from my dad. Shortly after I moved out of the house my little sister decided to go vegetarian, and my parents half-assedly followed suit to avoid having to cook two dinners every night. It's not often that you'll see me forego meat in any recipe for any meal of the day, but these quesadillas are the perfect "it's Monday night and I think I ate a whole cow over the weekend" meal. Even better, it makes enough black bean mix that you'll get a few more meals out of it. You will need:

1 19oz Can of Black Beans

1 Dollop of Whipped Cream Cheese (Per Person)

1 Flour Tortilla (Per Person)

1 Medium Onion, Diced

2-3 Cloves of Garlic, Minced

1 Green or Red Pepper, Diced

A handful of Green Onions, Diced

Spices to taste (I like Cumin and Chili Powder)

Put some of your favourite cooking oil in a decent-sized pan (big enough to fit one of your tortillas) over medium heat. Once it's hot, add your onions. When they start to go a bit translucent (about two minutes) add your garlic. Let it cook for a few more minutes, just enough that things start to brown and your wife/roommate/girlfriend/dog/Japanese love pillow starts perking their nose up and wondering what smells so good.

Add the can of beans. My dad prefers to drain the liquid and replace it with something sweet like orange juice, but I don't usually have juice in the house so I don't drain the beans. It's not as healthy this way but I'm young and foolhardy. Add your spices and let the beans cook until the liquid has almost completely reduced, stirring every so often. This is a good time to dice up your peppers and green onions, and start prepping your tortilla for its new life as a quesadilla shell (instructions on that below).

Once the beans are hot and the liquid is mostly cooked off, pour the whole mixture into a tupperware container. Take a fork and mash up the beans some. You don't have to puree them, just give them a good mashing. Lower the heat on the pan and add a bit more oil or some butter if you like. Take your tortilla and spread cream cheese on one half of it, leaving a bit of margin around the edge. Spoon (or fork, if you don't like doing a lot of dishes) out a layer of the black bean mix on top of that, and sprinkle it with your peppers and green onions. Fold the other half of the tortilla over this half and gently push down so that it sticks and the filling has been pushed a bit closer to the edge. Throw it back on the pan for a couple of minutes, and then flip it and cook the other side. It should be nice and golden brown and it will look especially delicious if you cooked it in butter.

When it's done, take it off the pan, cut it with a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, and serve it with salsa and sour cream.