Chicken Avocado Quesadilla

 Since avocados have been on sale, this has become a regular at my house lately--and no one is complaining! We eat this for lunch or dinner!

Ingredients

• 1 Cooked chicken breast (I throw a chicken breast in my steamer)
• 1 avocado, sliced thinly
• Shredded cheese (montery jack, monzerlla, Go Veggie! lactose free cheese--to make it dairy free)
• Butter (Earth Balance Lactose Free butter alternative to make it dairy free)
• Whole wheat tortillas
• Lime
• Salt
• Pepper

Steps

1. Preheat a griddle to 225-250 degrees.
2. Shred chicken.
3. Toss shredded chicken with a couple squeezes of lime, dash of pepper and dash of salt (optional).
4. On one half of the tortilla, place a few thinly sliced avocado pieces (I actually mash it up and spread it on the tortilla for Little Asher who is texture sensitive), some shredded chicken and a little shredded cheese. Fold the tortilla in half.
5. Put a thin layer of butter on the outside of both outside sides of the tortilla (I omit this on my quesadilla).
6. Cook on griddle until both sides are browned.
7. Allow to cool slightly and slice into triangles.

Miscellaneous: We usually eat this with crock pot vegetarian black beans (this recipe is next in the line up and I will link to it when available).

Tip:  Make the chicken ahead and put it in the fridge so that when it is time for dinner all you have to do is assemble and grill--easy!

Yield: Depends on how much chicken you use, but when we do one large chicken breast it feeds my family of four...which is about 6 quesadilla

Timing:  9-12 Months depending on your little ones ability to chew and grind and the number of teeth.  Little Asher was able to handle this cut up very small around 10 months and I would imagine Little Joy would have been around the same age had I tried it back then.

Difficulty: 2 out of 5; this is easy and can be partly made ahead.  Very few things get a 1 on difficulty from me; I reserve that for things I can do in my sleep!

Epicutie Rating (See left side of page for rating descriptions):
Little Joy:  Yummy in the Tummy; there is never a bit left of first helpings of this dish.  When she sees the griddle come out her exact words are "Is it pancakes or quesadilla??!  They are my favorite in the whole wide world!" LOL!
Little Asher:  Yummy in the Tummy; he usually finishes his before my husband and I finish ours!

Healthy Avocado Turkey Burgers

I sorta just made this up on the fly, so I hope I get the proportions of everything down ok!!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/4 cup natural apple sauce (strain it to get some of the water out)
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan
• 3/4 to 1 tablespoon Dale's Seasoning sauce (this is basically soy sauce, pepper, paprika and garlic; you could substitute for 2 teaspoons no salt seasoning mix if you do not want the salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground oregano
• Nutritional Yeast
• 1 ripe avocado
• slices of cheese (optional)
• buns

Steps:

1. Combine first five ingredients ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly.
2. Form into approximately five patties
3. Sprinkle the tops of burgers with nutritional yeast (and bottom if you want; I put this on the burgers because they were SO sticky I was afraid they would stick to the flipper so its kind of superfluous)
4. Grill burgers until internal temperature reaches 180 degrees; I like to make sure its DONE.
5. Top burgers with diced avocado and cheese and serve.

Miscellaneous:  My kids love cheese so every time we have burgers I indulge, who doesn't love a good cheese burger.  My dairy intolerant son uses veggie slices.

Timing:  Burgers are challenging; I would not give this until at least 18 months OR you can do it bun-less, deconstructed and cut up very small starting around one if they have a head full of teeth like mine did!

Difficulty: 1 out of 5; I made this up on the fly so it HAD to be easy!

Epicutie Rating (see left side of page for rating descriptions): Double Yummy in the Tummy's

• Little Joy:  Yummy in the Tummy; she scarfed down half a burger like it was nothing!
• Little Asher:  Yummy in the Tummy; Although it was hard for him to chew and tear into, he polished of his half of the burger without encouragement!