Lunch Basics: A Quesadilla Named Desire

Humble ingredients for an excellently easy lunch.

For this entry, I took a whole lot of pictures. Progress!

This "Lunch Basics" series will be about certain easy-to-prepare items that the actor (or college student or... anyone, really) should be able to make no matter what. Here we begin with a southwestern favorite: the quesadilla.

If you don't have a non-stick skillet,
use butter or oil in the pan.

The word quesadilla, as near as I can make out, means "little cheese dish" in Spanish. In Mexico, it is typically served whole with only cheese inside. although local fillings do make their ways into the dish. In America, it is typically sliced and often served with meat inside, chicken or beef. In both places, quesadillas are often accompanied by sour cream, salsa, guacamole, and/or chopped onions. And they make a very quick and tasty (and easy to make!) lunch.

A Cheese Quesadilla

The good stuff.

Serves 1 - approx. 5 min. cook time

Throw (or gently place; your choice)

- 1 Flour tortilla

on a non-stick pan over medium-low heat. On half of the tortilla, sprinkle

- 1 oz. shredded cheese (cheddar & jack work best)

- optional: ½ of a jalapeño (seeds out for mild, seeds in for spicy-hot)

- optional: 1 tsp. finely chopped cilantro

Use a spatula.

Carefully fold the tortilla in half. Let cook until the one side is slightly brown, then flip and cook until the other side matches. Plate the quesadilla, slice if you want, and serve with the proper fixin's.

Looking food. I mean, good.

Unhealthy, you say? Pish, posh! One of these babies along with 2 tsp. sour cream & 1 tbsp. salsa has 300 calories, 14.6 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbs (only 3 grams of which are sugars), and 13 grams of protein. PLUS 35% of your daily calcium, 11% vitamin A, 11% iron, and 6% vitamin C. And you'll need the energy from the fat & protein to get through that audition and the rehearsal for that other thing you have to do. Add some shredded lettuce (excellent idea!) and a glass of red wine (tempranillo goes well - only an additional 88 calories, 1 gram sugar, 3 grams carbs) and that's a meal that's LESS THAN 400 CALORIES! And it only takes 5 minutes to throw together.

Cut into four slices, but you can cut into three if that's
all you can eat. (Who? Yogi Berra? Never heard of 'im.)

It's nice knowing all you need for a decent lunch is a tortilla, some cheese, and a dream. Now... back to memorizing those lines!

Find out more about the humble quesadilla on Wikipedia. 




 

---

Title inspiration: A Streetcar Named Desire is a Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Tennessee Williams. Premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City on 3 December 1947, directed by Elia Kazan, starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy.