This is a must try recipe.  The hot and sweet flavors made my taste buds dance.  It is easy, filling, healthy, and sure to please anyone joining you for your meal.  I had a vision in my head for dinner.  Two new recipes popped into my mind and I was dying to try both!  This is the one I chose to try first and I am so so glad because it was so tasty. Some meals just MUST be super SIMPLE and this is one of them.  

What You'll Need:

1 15oz can of black beans
1 cup cooked brown rice (preferably rice cooked in veggie broth, that is what I used and it made a tasty impact)
4 whole wheat tortillas
1 cup sweet yellow corn
1/3 cup water
1/4 green bell pepper, casually diced
1/3 medium white onion, casually diced
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cheyenne pepper
few dashed white pepper
dash salt
dash chili powder
dab of no-dairy butter

Optional Toppings:

non-dairy sour cream
a tomato based salsa
shredded rice cheese

How You'll Do It:  

If you don't already have cooked rice on hand, you'll need to start here.  Cook 1/2 cup of brown rice in 1 cup of vegetable broth for about 50 minutes.  Let sit covered until you're ready to use it in recipe, but no longer than 10 minutes or so.

 In a large saucepan, steam-saute your onions in a few table spoons of water until they're translucent.  Add bell pepper to onions and let cook together for a few minutes.  You'll want your bell peppers to still have a little crunch left at this stage.  Drain your black beans about 90% and add the beans and corn to your pan.  Cook for 5 minutes, add rice and water and mix well.  Add all seasonings and stir to mix ingredients.  Reduce heat to med-low and let cook for 5-10 more minutes.  Stir occasionally to prevent sticking on pan.

 While mixture is finishing up cooking, get tortillas ready.  Spread a dab of non-dairy butter (Earth Balance recommended) across the entire surface of one side of each tortilla.  Use an indoor grill, a grill pan, or just another skillet to cook your quesadillas in.  I used a grill pan and heated it to medium.  I placed a tortilla down on the grill pan and spooned the bean and rice mixture over half the tortilla.  I then carefully folded the uncovered half of the tortilla over the mixture and pressed slightly to make sure it held it's shape.  I cooked each quesadilla for about 4 minutes on each side before flipping.  I was able to cook about two quesadillas at a time.  When they were done they were perfectly golden brown on each side and hot!

I chose to top my quesadillas with a light layer of Tofutti Better than Sour Cream (non-dairy sour cream) and a few scoops of salsa.  The beans and rice created a perfect complete protein, the onions and peppers were just present enough, and the sweet corn really complimented those hot spices!   

Serving Suggestions: serve with a green side (salad or zuke (zucchini) would be great, chips and salsa, or raw veggie sticks of carrots and celery).  If you haven't had all of your veggies for the day, feel free to add some shredded or diced zuke to this.  And if you're having a party, cut these quesadillas up into triangles and you've got a sure-hit appetizer!