Sweet Potato Quesadillas

We dug this recipe up out of one of our favorite go-to cookbooks, Simply in Season, from the "winter" section. We were beginning to get a little jaded with carb-heavy dishes and decided we needed to get more creative with our winter veggie selection, since we were feeling a little low on veggies. As we all know, there aren't many veggie options in the winter, but we were beginning to find that sweet potatoes were really starting to grow on us. So as we flipped through our trusty cookbook, we came across a recipe for sweet potato quesadillas and it just spoke to us. Simple ingredients, flavorful spices, and easy enough for a couple nights worth of dinner. Sounded good to us and we knew the sweet potato would definitely be filling! On a super budget week, this recipe came in handy - we had everything except one giant sweet potato, tortillas, and cheese, which are all fairly low-cost and easy to acquire.Will whipped these up in no time and we enjoyed a non-cheese slathered quesadilla that was really tasty (just ignore the queso dip in the picture...). We highly recommend this if you aren't feeling super inspired to put a ton of effort into cooking, but don't want to carb-out on unhealthy foods!

Cooking Notes: We don't have dried oregano or dried basil, so we always end up subbing Italian seasoning in its place. And this recipe called for marjoram, which we didn't have previously, but I had happened to pick it up at Whole Foods in Richmond the same weekend we made this, which was fun. We also only needed one giant sweet potato, though if you're feeding more than a couple people, we'd recommend two medium-large sweet potatoes to do the job.

Sweet Potato Quesadillas (adapted from Simply in Season; serves 8)
1 1/2 cups onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
Pinch of ground red pepper, to taste
1 lb. sweet potato (equaling 4 cups)
8 tortillas
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and oil baking sheets in preparation.

Mince the onion and garlic, then saute in a large frypan in 1 tbsp oil until translucent. Add your spices, then cook another minute. Add the sweet potato and heat through, stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Add S&P to taste.

Spread about 1/2 cup of the sweet potato filling and 2 tbsp cheese on half of each tortilla, leaving 1'2 inch border on the sides. Fold tortilla in half then place on baking sheets. Brush tops with oil, then bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve with sour cream and salsa and enjoy!