HEALTHY EATING on a Budget | 2 Easy Budget-Friendly Recipes | Black Bean Quesadillas

Hey everyone. I’m Marsha. And today I’m giving you tips on how to eat healthy on a budget. And I’m going to be sharing two simple and delicious recipes that are not only affordable, but they’re also healthy for you. So let’s get started. All right, tip number one is start making vegetables and legumes your best friend. So what do I mean by legumes? Well, beans and peas are part of the legume family. So we’re talking kidney beans, Pinto beans, black beans, chickpeas, green peas, all different types of beans and peas. They’re part of the legume family. So once you incorporate legumes with different type of vegetables, then you’re getting the best of both worlds. So why is that important? Well, number one, easy, right? They’re super nutritious for you. But number two is they can be found all throughout the grocery store at a variety of prices.

So you can find them in the fresh produce section. You can find them in the canned goods section, and you can find them in the frozen food section. So you can find vegetables and legumes all throughout the grocery store at different prices to fit your budget. All right? Tip number two is don’t feel pressured to fit within a certain lifestyle or diet. So sometimes I feel like we can set ourselves up for failure if we’re trying to jump on board a certain trend or a certain diet. So whether that’s becoming a vegan, vegetarian, the keto diet, there’s nothing wrong with those lifestyles, but don’t feel pressured to have to do that in order to eat healthy or live a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes it’s as simple as just trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your lifestyle that you’re already living into the foods that you’re already eating.

So start there, start incorporating more of these nutrients and whole foods into your current lifestyle, into your current diet. All right, so with that being said, let’s jump into two of my favorite recipes. And the first one is black bean quesadillas. All right, so really quickly, what we will be using is a can of black beans, a can of corn. You can either use frozen corn or canned corn. We’ll also be using some red onion, garlic, cilantro, some shredded cheese, some taco seasoning, and we’re going to put all of that into our tortilla shells. So let me show you how it all comes together. All right, so to start these black bean case, it is all you have to do is start dumping all of your ingredients into a large bowl. So I’m going to start off with my black beans. Again, these have been drained and rents, so I’m going to add those. I am going to add some canned corn. And don’t worry, I’ll leave all the measurements down below in the description box. But you don’t need a full can of corn. You only need a cup of corn. All right, so then I’m going to add some red onion. You do not need a huge large red on you. You only need a little bit. I’m going to add some garlic.

I am going to add some cilantro and then I’m going to add some taco seasoning. So this is what makes it all come together and makes it a Southwestern or a Southwest. Um, quesadilla So you need some taco seasoning. I like to make my own taco seasoning, so you only need two tablespoons of taco seasoning.

And if you can’t make your own, then feel free to just use the store about sock taco seasoning pack. That is certainly fine as well. All right, so I’ve got two tablespoons of taco seasoning and last but not least is the cheese. So I’m gonna add my cheese. Whatever cheese you want to use is totally fine. I like to use, you know, a combination of cheeses. So this is Mexican cheese, but feel free to use, you know, any other cheese that you want. All right, so now it’s time to start. So we’re going to mix this all together.

all right. And once you have that all mixed together, then you can go ahead and move on to the stove and start to cook your case. It is. You want to just start off by taking a couple of spoonfuls of your mixture and you can kind of just eyeball this. I usually do about three or four spoonfuls and then just kind of flatten the mixture on one side of the tortilla and then you’re going to press the other side down and kind of make it flat like a half moon. So I like doing my case a D as in these half moon sizes because it’s just easier for me to cook and flip in the skillet.

And that is how easy it is to make black bean case. It is. Now again, if you would like to use shredded chicken or steak in this recipe, you certainly can. It’s totally up to you. But I like it just like it is. And again, if you use any type of meat, it is going to increase your budget a little bit. So if you’re trying to stay more on the affordable side, then you can make it just like I did. All right, so moving on to our second recipe. Now another reason why I said make vegetables and beans, your best friend is because they’re extremely versatile. So I’m going to take some of these same ingredients that we just use for the black bean case. It is and turn it into a whole nother recipe. And we’re going to be making stuff baked potatoes. So instead of regular baked potatoes, I’m going to be using sweet potatoes because sweet potatoes are healthier for you.

They’re packed with nutrients and vitamins and tons of antioxidants. So I love using sweet potatoes more than I use regular baked potatoes. But you certainly can use regular baked potatoes for this recipe. All right, so what we’re going to be using pretty much the same. We’re going to be using canned black beans and I’m going to drain and rinse off. We’re going to be using canned sweet corn that I’m gonna drain and rinse off some onion, some garlic, and my homemade taco season to make it a Southwestern stuffed potato. The only thing that I’m not going to be using his cheese, but if you’re going to be using this with a regular baked potato, then I probably would include that cheese cause that’ll probably be really good to add cheese to like an Idaho or rusted potato. But since I’m using sweet potato, that’s the only thing I’m going to leave out.

All right, so let’s get started. All right, so this time I’m actually going to be mixing up all of my ingredients just like I did before minus the cheese, and I’m actually going to saute this in a skillet for a little while just to let it heat up. And then once they’re all heated up just a little bit, then all you have to do is throw it on your baked potato. So I already have some sweet potatoes that I cooked earlier in my instant pot. I don’t know if you have one or not, but if you do, I highly recommend cooking your potatoes in there because it’s just so easy and you can just throw them in there and forget about it. Basically, if you want to know how to do that, I do have a video that I dropped down below in the description box, but if you don’t have one, then you can certainly make them in the oven or in the microwave.

So however you want to cook your potato is certainly up to you. So I’m going to take my sweet potatoes, I’m going to open them up, make a little well inside of it, and then once all of my vegetables and beans are sauteed, all you have to do is just dump it in there to make us stuff potato. And that’s it. And if you’re worried about whether or not this is enough food, trust me, them beings will fill you up. And if you’re not a big fan of black things, feel free to use any other type of beans that you want, whether that’s kidney beans or Pinto beans. This is why it’s so important to start trying out and experimenting on different fruits and vegetables and beans because you never know what you’re like. All right, I hope you enjoyed both of these recipes that are easy and affordable to make. If you did, please leave me a big thumbs up, down below. And don’t forget to check out the rest of the recipes on my channel because I love making food that’s healthy and simple to make. So make sure you check out those as well. And if you haven’t already hit that subscribe button. So you can subscribe to my channel and you’ll never miss when I upload a video. All right. Thanks so much for watching until next week. I’ll see you later.