Cheese Quesadillas with Tomato Salsa and Guacamole

Quesadillas are a quick and easy, tasty and very filling snack.  They also make a delicious light meal that can be teamed with soup.

There are so many different types you can make, the list really is endless, but I am going to start with the simplest and easiest one I know

My favourite quesadilla wraps to use are these wholegrain barley wraps.  These wraps have a lovely flavour, a slightly chewy texture, and they are soft and easy to roll.  There is nothing worse than trying to roll up something inside a wrap that just breaks and falls apart!

These wraps also happen to be very healthy for you.  Why?  These wraps are not only high in fibre, but they contain a type of fibre called resistant starch which has been shown to:

• improve digestive health by increasing stool bulk, thus promoting regularity
• increase the body’s sensitivity to insulin (so you need to secrete less of it to remove glucose from your blood, which is a good thing!)
• have a prebiotic effect, meaning it is food that nourishes the healthy bacteria that are present in your gut, helping it to produce short chain fatty acids, including butyrate, that has been shown to help with reducing the risk of bowel cancer
• prebiotics may also reduce constipation and diarrhoea, increase calcium absorption, boost the immune system, reduce harmful bacteria and possibly even reduce blood cholesterol

Nutrition wise, each wrap is very similar to a slice of wholegrain bread, except for the fibre content as you can see in this table…

Wholegrain Barley Wrap	Slice of Wholegrain and Oats Burgen Bread
weight 45g	weight 42g
437 kilojoules	400 kilojoules
104 calories	95 calories
5.4g protein	4.5g protein
2.2g fat	2.1g fat
10.6g carbohydrate	13.2g carbohydrate
10.4g fibre	2.7g fibre

These wholegrain barley wraps also stack up against most other wraps available in the supermarket which have a much higher fat content and much much lower fibre content. Most other wraps are also usually equivalent in calories and carbohydrate to two slices of bread, not one (apart from Mountain Bread Wraps).

You can vary these quesadillas as you like.  For example you could add olives or baby spinach leaves, or for a more filling snack you could include black beans or lentils.  If you have more time on your hands you can even make your own salsa, which would make them really special.

When you are in a hurry though, these are delicious and take no time at all to make…

Cheese Quesadillas with Tomato Salsa and Guacamole

Serves 1

• 1 Barley wrap
• 25g extra tasty cheese (for those with high cholesterol or trying to lose weight use low fat tasty cheese or even replace with ricotta cheese)
• 2 tablespoons (60g) tomato salsa
• 2 tablespoons (50g) guacamole (see recipe below)

Directions:

Heat a non stick pan over medium-low heat

Meanwhile, cover half the barley wrap with tasty cheese

Dollop salsa over the top of the cheese, then fold the barley wrap over

Transfer to pan and cook for 2 minutes

Turn over and cook on the other side for a further 2 minutes

Remove from pan, cut in half or into quarters and top with guacamole

Eat while still warm

Super Quick Guacamole

• 1 ripe avocado
• juice of 1/2-1 lime
• salt & pepper

Directions:

1. Mash avocado flesh with a fork
2. Add 1 tablespoon of lime juice, a pinch of salt and pepper
3. Mix, then taste and add more lime juice as needed to taste

Per Serve: 1340kJ or 319 calories; P 13g Fat 21g SFat 8g CHO 14g Fibre 11.8g

Using low fat cheese – Per Serve: 1128kJ or 268 calories; P 15g Fat 14g SFat 4g CHO 14g Fibre 11.8g

Using low fat ricotta cheese – Per Serve: 1050kJ or 250 calories; P 9.5g Fat 15g SFat 4g CHO 14g Fibre 11.8g

Note:  This is a high calorie snack, good for those maintaining or even wanting to put on weight

For more information about snacking see http://delicioussnacks.wordpress.com/what-is-a-snack/