Foodie Friday: Pre-Prepped Veggie Life Hack

Show of hands: how many of you browse Pinterest at least a few times a week? Now, how many of you ever follow through on the things you pin?

Yeah, me too.

But this spinach and tomato quesadilla recipe from Budget Bytes looked good and easy. The beauty of the stuffing is that it is super versatile and you can use it in a variety of dishes. If you make a whole bunch over the weekend, you won't be tired of it by the times it runs out on Friday! You can even be super ambitious and double the recipe and freeze it for when you don't feel like feeding yourself. (Hint: this would be a good one to save for NaNoWriMo!)

Pre-Prepped Veggie Life Hack

(because it's too easy, lazy, and basic to really be a recipe)

What You Need

• Half a pound/200 g of fresh spinach
• 3–4 diced Roma tomatoes (2 is just not enough, IMO)
• One pound/500 g of shredded cheese (if you're not feeding vegans)
• One half to one whole shredded onion
• One shredded chicken breast or equivalent amount of your favorite vegetable protein (if you like)
• Favorite spices
• A big-ass bowl

What You Do

• Dump the spinach in the bowl and shred the hell out of it with some scissors. Or you can use a blender, if you like, I'm not judging. Set aside. (Budget Bytes uses frozen but I find it easier to hack up a giant bag of fresh spinach than mess around with thawing frozen and then squeezing out the water.)
• Dice the tomatoes. This is the most time-intensive process for me. If you want to be lazy, just slice 'em up. If you want to be a little fancier, squeeze all the pulp and water out of the tomatoes and then dice 'em up. Add to your bowl of spinach.
• Slice the onion. I never know how much I use because I always use what's left over from our last dish. JV likes to cook with onions and he'll slice however many he bought that night, regardless of how much the recipe needs, but I would say it's probably "mostly one" onion. Add it to your bowl of spinach and tomato.
• Add the cheese if you have it.
• Set it aside and prepare your chicken breast however you like it. This is the other time-intensive part but I skip it by asking JV to prepare and shred the meat (I trust him with preparing meat more than I trust myself). Add the chicken to your bowl of veggies and cheese.
• Add your spices and combine well.

That's it! This was enough to last two people for four dinners (in this case, quesadillas) each and it takes about 15 minutes, maybe like 20 if you include chicken or a vegetable protein. If you keep it in a sealed container or bag in your fridge, it'll easily keep for five days. It's good to use in quesadillas, burritos, omelettes, scrambled eggs, sandwiches, wraps, or just on its own. Other things you might like to add:

• Beans
• Bell pepper
• Mushroom
• Shredded carrots
• Corn
• Arugula 

Whatever you think is tasty and have the time and energy to prep!

Bon appetit!