This post was originally published August 15, 2014. Since then, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made these Turkey and Spinach Baked Tostadas for dinner. This method of baking tostadas has inspired other baked tostadas recipes as well, like these Salsa Chicken and Bean Tostadas and these Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Pork Tostadas.

From August, 2014:

My goal these days is to make one dinner that everyone in my family will eat. It is not easy! As my kids have gotten older, there are foods that they used to like that they no longer like and of course there are foods that one likes and the other does not like. It’s hard to keep track of at times that’s for sure.

For the most part, I don’t tend to make any “special” meals, meaning I won’t make myself crazy by making individual meals driven by pickiness. I do expect my kids to try everything once (or twice, or more…I never give up), but there are some food battles that are just not worth fighting at times. I will, however, try to make our meals where I can leave out certain ingredients or parts of the meal off the plate (more for others). For example…this bean salad I recently made – my son wanted no part of it (that’s fine, he’ll get carrot sticks) and my daughter loves beans but not so much the onions and peppers (no problem, more veggies for me and my husband). I can work with that. Especially when the other part of the meal is something like this recipe for Turkey and Spinach Baked Tostadas that EVERYONE loved (phew!).

This is the kind of recipe I normally don’t think of posting here on the blog. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that most of us are probably in the same situation – busy and trying to feed a family healthy and nutritious meals most of the time. I always feel extra good on the days I accomplish that task so when I make something that works for my family and fits that criteria I will share it here – even if it seems a bit basic. (After 6 years of blogging I have learned that the most basic recipes I’ve shared here on the blog have been the most popular!)

These baked tostadas come together very quickly. I actually cooked up the turkey and spinach mixture earlier in the day which made it even easier to pull together at dinnertime. If you cook your turkey and spinach mixture at dinnertime, make sure it cools down a bit before topping the tortillas to prevent the tortillas from getting soggy.

Make sure you drain your defrosted frozen spinach well before adding it to your pan, if you don’t things might get a little watery but it will eventually cook off. I used my favorite homemade taco seasoning blend from my friend Julie.

Hope your family enjoys these as much as mine did! 🙂

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Click here to Pin these Oven Baked Black Bean and Cheese Quesadillas!

This sheet pan quesadilla recipe was created in partnership with Bush’s Beans.

For the last few weeks I’ve been really making an effort to write out, shop for, and follow a meal plan during the week. It’s worked wonders for us. The question of what to make for dinner is no longer an issue, and I feel more prepared each day. It’s definitely a habit I’m trying to stick with.

At least one night a week we squeeze in a Mexican themed meal. If it’s a particularly busy night I’ll even turn that Mexican meal into a meatless one to save the extra steps involved to cook up the meat. I always have cans of beans on hand, and if it was up to me, it would be my protein of choice on most nights. Mexican nights are the perfect nights for a good, easy meatless recipe if you ask me!

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This post is sponsored by Bush’s Beans.

Are you a corn or flour tortilla person? I have always been more of a  (whole wheat) flour tortilla person, until my friend Liz got me hooked on corn tortillas. Friends who are food lovers (like you) tend to get you hooked on stuff like that. Ever since I got to peek inside her fridge earlier this year I pretty much have the same big bag of corn tortillas in my fridge at all times. I use them for so many dishes now like these Turkey and Spinach Tostadas that my family loves and these Black Bean and Egg Tostadas that make breakfast a little more interesting.

Corn tortillas are my jam.

You know who else likes them? My little man. An easy peasy lunch for him is a quick cheese quesadilla with a side of black beans. And diced avocado. He gobbles it all up.

With all the little cheese quesadillas I’ve been making for him at lunch lately, I got a little creative and made a version more suited for me. Though I have a feeling he would love them too.

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In just a couple of months, I’m going to be counting on seriously quick and easy meals to put together for dinner. I’ve never been a big make-ahead-freezer-meal type of person, but lately I’ve been thinking of ways to get some shortcuts together for myself to keep in the freezer to make things a little easier for when the baby comes. One shortcut that has worked for me in the past – when I’ve taken the time to do it – is pre-cook ground seasoned ground beef or turkey for Mexican or Italian recipes. I cook up a big batch, seasoned up as I want, and once cooled, store enough in separate baggies (labeled!) for a couple of meals. I did the same with chicken a month ago, and I have to say, having a bag of already shredded chicken to throw into quesadillas or soup has come in really handy the last few weeks. I usually feel like doing this after a shopping trip to Costco since I can buy in bulk and boy does it feel good when I’m done.

Recently I froze up leftovers from a big batch of homemade enchilada sauce – same concept, I just portioned it out into meal sized containers to use for our next enchilada night. The rest of this enchilada dinner came together extremely easily since all the ingredients – like Bush’s Black Beans, tortillas and cheese – were ones I typically always have in the pantry or refrigerator. I kept these Cheesy Black Bean and Corn Enchiladas as a vegetarian recipe, but if you had some precooked shredded chicken or ground turkey in the freezer, that would be a great addition as well.

I would be happy to hear any make-ahead meal ideas or shortcuts you have – I need all the help I can get! Leave me a note in the comments!

In the meantime, enjoy this recipe for enchiladas for dinner. You can honestly never go wrong with black beans and cheese, these were a total hit and no one (my husband) missed the meat!

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Many of you know that pizza and I go way back. Waaaaaay back. (if you didn’t know, my parents have owned a pizza shop since I was an itty bitty girl, I grew up watching my dad making a million pizzas a week). It’s hands down my favorite food in the world.

Mexican food? I don’t think I had a taste of Mexican food until I was close to becoming an adult. Mexican food didn’t really make appearances in my Italian rooted house during my childhood. I think I had my first bean dip when I was waitressing at a sports bar in college. Nachos and I became best friends around that time too. I think it’s now safe to say that I love Mexican food. And I cook it at home at least once a week.

This little recipe for Mexican Black Bean Pizza is the perfect combination of my two favorite foods. It uses just a few ingredients that you will most likely already have on hand. The one ingredient you may have to make a little effort for is the pulled pork. I happen to have some leftover in my freezer from the last batch I made, but if you don’t, any leftover protein would really work here – leftover grilled or pulled chicken, chorizo or taco meat. Play around with it.

Of course, this little pizza included another favorite food of mine – beans. Grab a can, heat them up with some onion and throw them on there, easy peasy. Canned beans are so great to have on hand to add to any recipe.

Each pizza “crust” is made with 2 tortillas, glued together by cheese, to make it sturdier. I thought this was pretty genius. If you are watching your calories, just cut back a little on the cheese – and remember to shred it yourself straight from the block, I always find that when you do it that way the cheese melts so much better and you can use a lot less.

Grab a slice and enjoy!

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For those of us that observe Lent, no meat on Fridays can sometimes throw us for a loop if we’re not prepared. I remember my grandparents always cooking lots of fish on Fridays. If fish wasn’t on the menu, well then we had cheese or some sort of veggie pizza (let’s keep in mind that my family has owned a pizza shop since I was 4 years old, our pizzas got very awesome and creative at times).

Pizza and fish are definitely standby’s during Fridays in Lent, but there are so many other options now that “meatless” has become a little more norm for us. This past week, we celebrated Ash Wednesday – the start of Lent – and one of our no-meat days of abstinence. I wasn’t in the mood for preparing fish, and didn’t want pizza on Wednesday (secretly saving it for the weekend!) so I fell back on another meatless old reliable – Mexican food. Thanks to beans, cheese, tortillas and this awesome homemade green sauce that is so easy to whip up, we enjoyed a fantastic Mexican dinner that was happily eaten up by everyone in my family. Phew. Those kind of meals are hard to come by sometime. I will disclose, my son hasn’t come around to beans yet. My daughter, however, was asking for seconds! Loved that.

I first posted these Cheese & Onion Enchiladas with Verde Sauce back in May of 2011 and didn’t realize that I never followed up with my Quickie Black Bean recipe until a reader recently asked me for it on Facebook. So here it is. It’s simple, and a great way to add plant-based protein to any meatless meal you are cooking up. If you end up with leftovers add them to a tortilla with a little cheese and toast it up in the oven for a tortilla “pizza”.

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Quick and easy seem to be a busy home cook’s favorite kind of recipe these days, especially with school schedules in full swing and the busy holiday season literally lurking just around the corner. For the sake of my own sanity, and to avoid eating out during the week, I need at least a couple of go-to quick and easy meals in my back pocket, and I’m happy to report this Two-Bean Vegetarian Mexican Lasagna is now one of them.

My family doesn’t realize it, but we eat mostly meatless meals – several times a week. A huge perk of most meatless recipes is that they come together extremely quick and easy since you are usually skipping an entire step of the cooking process. Beans and whole grains are ingredients I rely on heavily for protein when I’m cooking meatless, so it’s safe to say that you can always find them in my pantry.

With the help of my friend and chef Connie Guttersen – whom I’ve gotten to know well over the years while working together with Bush’s Beans – I put this simple Vegetarian Mexican Lasagna together for my family and to my happy surprise, in just 30 minutes. I’ve always enjoyed Connie’s health-conscious recipes, so I was excited to be able to brainstorm with her on this recipe. Our focus was to keep things simple by using everyday items most of have on hand in the pantry and freezer, including Bush’s beans, salsa, frozen corn and tortillas.

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When it comes to building a quesadilla, I think it’s pretty safe to say “anything goes”. I think that’s what I love the most about making them. They are basically just the vehicle for whatever ingredients you have on hand, and most of the time I would say, it’s pretty hard not to get it right.

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Ahhhh, the 7-layer dip. The dip everyone gravitates too at a party, right? I’m a fan that’s for sure.

For some reason though, I have a hard time keeping it at just 7 layers. But this time I did. Only because I didn’t have layers 8 & 9 (which happen to be shredded lettuce and sliced jalapenos usually).

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This weekend my family got together for our monthly “family day” at my sister’s house to celebrate my brother-in-law’s birthday. I’m not sure exactly when our monthly get-together tradition officially started, but I’m glad it did. My family is close, and we spend a lot of time together normally,  but it seems over the last few years with life getting busy with our growing families, jobs and just “stuff” that we weren’t getting together as a whole as often as we used to. My mom has been great about reaching out to each of us and setting a date that works for everyone to get together each month. We usually rotate houses and it seems that there always happens to be a reason to celebrate, whether it be a birthday or holiday or just each other.

Of course, food is absolutely always involved.

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