I’m no gourmet, but I’ve always enjoyed cooking. Of course, this was nearly impossible to do in the first few weeks postpartum. I had done some freezer-stocking in my third trimester, and we were lucky to have friends and family bring meals by (never turn this offer down), and a really good carry-out sandwich shop open around the corner from our house.
It felt good to finally get back to cooking after about six weeks or so. Because I do most of my cooking while baby-wearing or in between feedings, laundry, etc., I’ve had to adapt. For example, most of my cooking has to be done on the stove so I don’t have to reach into a hot oven with the baby on me. Also, after a few years living microwave-free, we conceded we might starve to death without it.
I thought I’d start sharing some of my easy dinner ideas for new moms. (I promise, future ones will have better photos. Actually, I make no promises, but I’ll try.)
My goals are as follows: Easy, relatively healthy (to make up for the fact I eat mostly string cheese and granola bars for breakfast and lunch), and tasty (to make up for the fact I eat mostly string cheese and granola bars for breakfast and lunch.)
Sweet potato, chickpea and avocado quesadillas
Quesadillas have been my go-to easy dinner since college. Last week, I made sweet potato, chickpea and avocado quesadillas that took almost no time, were pretty healthy and were really tasty. This barely counts as a recipe, it was so easy, but if you’re not much of an improviser, here you go:
Ingredients (serves 2 very hungry adults with limited portion control)
- One large sweet potato
- One can of chickpeas
- One ripe avocado
- Lemon or lime juice (you could use fresh if you have your sh*t together; as I do not, I use refrigerated lemon juice out of a squeeze bottle.)
- Salt to taste
- Cumin to taste
- Red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper or hot sauce (unless you don’t like spicy)
- About 1/4 block of Monterey jack or pepper jack cheese, shredded
- Four soft whole grain tortillas
- Salsa
Instructions
- Microwave the sweet potato until it is fully cooked. Allow it to cool enough that you can peel it.
- Drop the peeled sweet potato into a large mixing bowl. Add the can of chick peas (rinsed), 3/4 of the avocado, a few splashes of citrus juice of your choice, cumin, salt, and pepper flakes.
- Mash with a potato masher until the chickpeas start to smash up and everything is fairly uniformly spread out, but not complete mush. Leave some texture.
- Heat a cast iron skillet on medium heat. Add a little oil. Sprinkle some cheese on a tortilla and then add a few heaping tablespoons of the sweet potato mixture. Fold in half and cook in the skillet until the tortilla is browned and a little crispy on both sides. Repeat with other three tortillas.
- Cut with a pizza cutter and serve with salsa and the reserved 1/4 avocado.
