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    $5 Dinners | Budget Recipes, Meal Plans, Freezer Meals

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    Summer Squash Quesadillas

    June 19, 2010 by Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom 20 Comments

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    summer squash quesadillas

    ***These would make a great appetizer for your July 4th BBQ!***

    Just sayin’.

    (Okay, just had to get that out of the way.)

    So for the second time, I’ve had to pick up the veggies from the market to make my meal for Grow. Eat. $ave. I remember looking through last year’s garden posts, and by this time in June 2009 my squash plants were producing a new squash every other day and I was struggling to keep up with them!

    I must have planted the seeds later this year…I dunno!

    Let’s talk quesadillas…in my head, quesadillas have always been a Tex-Mex thing…needed some chicken or beans, cheese, some cilantro, or salsa mixed in…served with sour cream, or guacamole. That’s just what I thought about Quesadillas.

    One of the things that I love about this little here website of mine is that it makes me think outside my cooking box…so for this week’s Grow. Eat. $ave. I thought I’d do a quesadilla with an Italian flavor.

    Once I had the summer squash in hand and the idea to use it in a quesadilla, it was time to go foraging. I started in the garden…fresh basil and curled parsley from the garden, (what should be fresh from the garden) yellow summer squash…

    Then I raided the refrigerator and found a red pepper in the produce drawer in the fridge, some cheese that my mom has been using this week for her breakfasts, as well as some cherry tomatoes (that I couldn’t help snack on while I was quartering them).

    Here’s what happened after that.

    But first, the final results.

    summer squash quesadillas

    Y-to-the-YUM!!!

    (My new favorite phrase I stole from Becky!)

    Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Recipe Recipe Saved!

    Summer Squash Quesadillas

    Warm quesadilla packed with freshly grilled veggies!
    Prep Time10 minutes
    Cook Time10 minutes
    Servings - 24 triangles

    Ingredients 

    • 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
    • 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
    • Handful fresh basil leaves
    • Handful fresh curled parsley
    • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
    • Large handful cherry tomatoes, quartered
    • 1 red pepper, grilled, then diced
    • 1 large summer squash, grilled, then diced
    • 8 soft taco size tortillas

    Instructions

    • Place the cheeses, the chopped basil and parsley and the crushed garlic into a large mixing bowl.(I think these would be really good with mozzarella, but I was all out.)
    • Quarter the cherry tomatoes and toss into the mixing bowl with the cheese. Mix her up.
    • Meanwhile…fire up the grill and grill the red pepper slices and the squash slices. Then dice.
    • Toss the diced grilled squash and diced grilled red pepper in with the cheese mixture.
    • Spoon the mixture into the the tortillas. Fold over, or cover 1 tortilla with the mixture and top with another tortilla.
      However you like…in the end, it won’t matter how you use the mixture in the tortilla. It’s really about the ooey-gooey goodness that will result from grilling the quesadilla.
    • Place the tortillas on the grill for a few minutes on each side, or until the cheese is oozing out the sides of the tortillas…as sure sign they are ready for consumption.
    • Let cool and cut grilled quesadillas into little triangles.
    • Serve Summer Squash Quesadillas as an appetizer or main meal.

    summer squash quesadillas

    Favorite Yellow Squash Recipes from Last Year’s Garden Harvest:

    • Chicken Pasta Primavera
    • Tomato Basil Quiche
    • Summer Squash Pasta Salad

    And here are the rest of the yellow squash $5 Dinners recipes!

    COMING UP IN 2 WEEKS on Grow. Eat. $ave. – Lettuces and Greens

    If you’d like to learn more about Square Foot Gardening, please check out the Square Foot Gardening books by Mel Bartholemew.

    We’d love to check our your favorite yellow squash recipes!  Please leave a link below or in the comments!

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    Filed Under: Recipes from the Garden Tagged With: cherry tomatoes, red pepper, sqaure foot gardening, yellow squash

    Comments

    1. [email protected] Balance Sheet says

      June 19, 2010 at 7:35 am

      squash in quesadillas is definitely thinking outside the box. this looks delicious and will definitely give it a try. I’m always looking for squash ideas, since I usually have 10 times more squash than recipes.

      thanks for the meme.

      Reply
    2. Laura T. says

      June 19, 2010 at 8:12 am

      What a great app or starter for a summer dinner party! And I’m always looking for new squash ideas since they always seem to be in my fridge.

      Reply
    3. Tiffany says

      June 19, 2010 at 8:39 am

      Yum! I love the idea of Italian quesadillas. Yours look great.

      Reply
    4. Candi says

      June 19, 2010 at 12:49 pm

      That’s a great idea! Never would have thought of it…and your picture is beautiful!

      Reply
    5. Mary says

      June 19, 2010 at 5:33 pm

      Quesadillas aka Cheese Crisps are truly Mexican food not Tex Mex. We usually eat ours made from a flour tortilla, folded in half, with cheese in the middle that’s melted while cooking on the skillet. We like to eat them dipped in salsa.

      Open face tortillas and tortilla “sandwiches” are variants.

      Reply
    6. Karen says

      June 19, 2010 at 6:32 pm

      Made these for dinner tonight with CSA squash…so good!

      Reply
    7. terrin says

      June 19, 2010 at 7:50 pm

      I love that this is a quick and easy vegetarian meal! I really think that less meat/animal products is the most healthy eco-concious (and cheap!) Way to feed a family. Have you thought about promoting “meatless mondays”? Maybe every monday having a new fresh meatless meal? I think many families would benefit, but need guidance…..

      Reply
      • Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom says

        June 21, 2010 at 7:35 pm

        @terrin,

        That’s a great idea! I have another Monday meme that I have here…I’ll see how I can work in a meatless concept…because we do at least one meatless meal per week!

        Reply
    8. The Curvy Life says

      June 19, 2010 at 9:52 pm

      This sounds sooo yummy! I am the self-proclaimed “squash queen” so this is right up my alley! Thanks for thinking out of the box so I can eat there!! 🙂

      La-
      http://www.thecurvylife.com

      Reply
    9. Debbi Does Dinner Healthy says

      June 19, 2010 at 10:20 pm

      These quesadillas sound awesome! I LOVE making quesadillas. We eat more tortillas here than we do bread. When in doubt, put it on a tortilla is my motto. I will for sure try this, thanks!!

      Reply
    10. fairy dust says

      June 19, 2010 at 11:26 pm

      Oh, those look heavenly! I have a zuke left from my farm share box, and this would be the perfect way to use it up – thanks for the suggestion and the great photos!!!

      Reply
    11. yvonne says

      June 20, 2010 at 6:06 am

      These look wonderful! My family would love them. I cannot have them GF&CF.
      For folks like me, make a batch of brown rice adding chicken base to the water cooking as normal. When the rice is done add all ingredients with lime juice and garlic. This makes an awesome salad. I love it with sliced avocado on it.
      Keep up the good work, I look forward to your emails with new and fresh ideas.

      Reply
    12. JodieMo says

      June 20, 2010 at 9:31 pm

      Summer squash is delicious, but it can be hard to come up with different ideas on how to use it! There are some great ideas here and I love the quesadilla!

      Reply
    13. Karen says

      June 21, 2010 at 12:34 am

      I love zucchini but I find it to be a highly expensive vegetable, guess it is one that you would probably be better off growing in the garden? its great steamed, fried, baked….such flavor!

      Reply
    14. Alta says

      June 21, 2010 at 2:32 pm

      Love this! I made a random-stuff quesadilla this past weekend – I sauteed some fresh pear tomatoes from my garden with thyme (from the garden) and spinach (frozen). Added some Daiya cheese and put it all in a brown rice tortilla and grilled until the tortilla was crispy and cheese was melty. Yummy gluten-free, dairy-free goodness! I love your grilled yellow squash even more.

      Reply
    15. tina says

      June 25, 2010 at 1:24 pm

      I do not have a blog site. Love your recipes. I noticed how healthy you try to eat. So here is our recipe.
      1 cup brown Rice (cook as box)
      1 cup homemade Speghetti Sauce (this is our all around go to sauce) – Great for speghetti and also great on homemade pizza on the grill. and so much better than store bought.
      1 large can Red Gold (key is good canned tomato) crushed tomato
      1 16oz stewed tomatoes (in the summer we used homemade)
      1/4 cup olive oil
      1 t sugar
      1 tbs oregano (6 leaves fresh)
      1 t parsley
      4 cloves garlic.
      1-2 Yellow and green squash (can add other veggies ie. eggphant, carrots, etc..)
      3 green onion
      Saute veggies in olive oil, then add rice and speghetti sauce.
      YUMMY lunch or side for $1-$2.

      Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. Chicken Ranch Quesadillas : Cooking During Stolen Moments says:
      June 24, 2010 at 8:04 pm

      […] ever made quesadillas. But I am in love with the idea of grilling them and Erin has a great recipe featuring grilled quesadillas over at $5 Dinners. That method would definitely work with this recipe […]

      Reply
    2. Grilled Squash Quesadillas | Gluten Free Birmingham says:
      November 11, 2010 at 2:15 pm

      […] So I have been shopping for recipes and I found one that I must share!  It is a spinoff of 5 Dollar Dinner’s Summer Squash Quesadillas. Ingredients:  I didn’t measure ingredients, I am really bad about that, so season to taste […]

      Reply
    3. The Ultimate Quesadilla Recipe Roundup says:
      March 7, 2013 at 1:46 am

      […] Summer Squash Quesadillas […]

      Reply
    4. A Different Kind of Quesadilla | A Life In Tune says:
      November 11, 2013 at 8:20 am

      […] started with this recipe and altered it based on what I had on hand and the short amount of time I had. Basically, it gave me […]

      Reply

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    I’m Erin Chase…

    Also known as the
    $5 Dinner Mom.

    I have a little problem. I cannot make a meal that costs more than $5.
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