Everyday Cooking

Super Simple Single Serving Breakfast Quesadilla

February 13, 2014

Each Thursday, Emily Vikre (a.k.a fiveandspice) will be sharing a new way to love breakfast -- because breakfast isn't just the most important meal of the day. It's also the most awesome.

Today: A breakfast quesadilla that will get you going, not slow you down. 

Breakfast quesadilla from Food52

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There is this place, well, it’s a café really, not just a place, but anyway, a place near us that has a breakfast quesadilla on its brunch menu. And it’s not just a breakfast quesadilla, really, because it’s approximately the size of Montana. It’s as large and capacious as a duffle bag. It’s a quesadilla that means business.

I covet it desperately, but I never order it because I know I would eat the whole thing in one sitting and then have to be rolled out of the café in a wheelbarrow. That’s how I am with brunch. Unless I sate myself with a pre-brunch breakfast, I get so hungry by the time brunch rolls around that I will not stop eating the food until it is gone, no matter how much food it is. Under those circumstances, my only self-restraint mechanism lies in staying away entirely.  

I was thinking sadly about the decided lack of state-sized breakfast quesadillas in my life on Monday morning. I stared balefully at the egg I was frying, and it dawned on me that the egg was very similar in size and shape to a small tortilla. No further thinking was necessary. I grabbed cheese, a grater, and a tortilla, swiftly showering the egg with cheese, then topping it with the tortilla. When the egg was cooked to my liking, I flipped the whole stack over and let the tortilla brown for a little then folded it and ate it with avocados and salsa. My day was made, and I didn’t need to call in an emergency wheelbarrow. I’d call that a win-win.   

Quesadilla from Food52 

Super Simple Single Serving Breakfast Quesadilla

Serves 1

1/2 tablespoon butter
1 large egg
Salt and pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons grated mild cheese (like Monterey Jack or mild cheddar)
One 6-inch tortilla, corn or flour, your choice (though flour folds a little better)
Sliced avocado and your favorite salsa for serving 

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photos by Emily Vikre

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I like to say I'm a lazy iron chef (I just cook with what I have around), renegade nutritionist, food policy wonk, and inveterate butter and cream enthusiast! My husband and I own a craft distillery in Northern Minnesota called Vikre Distillery (www.vikredistillery.com), where I claimed the title, "arbiter of taste." I also have a doctorate in food policy, for which I studied the changes in diet and health of new immigrants after they come to the United States. I myself am a Norwegian-American dual citizen. So I have a lot of Scandinavian pride, which especially shines through in my cooking on special holidays. Beyond loving all facets of food, I'm a Renaissance woman (translation: bad at focusing), dabbling in a variety of artistic and scientific endeavors.

8 Comments

dymnyno February 13, 2014
You have the soul of a Californian !!! Great recipe.
 
fiveandspice February 14, 2014
Ooh, I like to hear that. That justifies the quantity in which I eat avocados, right?! :)
 
aargersi February 13, 2014
I think you are a closet Texan :-)
 
fiveandspice February 14, 2014
It is definitely possible! ;)
 
stephanieRD February 13, 2014
Love the breakfast idea! Totally up my ally. :)
 
fiveandspice February 14, 2014
Thanks!
 
Andrée-Anne S. February 13, 2014
Omg that looks sooooo good! I'm craving corn tortillas now!
 
fiveandspice February 14, 2014
Thank you! I do love corn tortillas - especially fried in a little butter, hehe.