Cooking for Dogs Low Calorie Quesadillas

I love quesadillas.
Always have. Probably always will. There is something so satisfying and comforting about them. Moist chicken. Crisp Veggies. Lots of oozy gooey cheese.







So much yummy cheese.

Lately, I’ve been conscious of just how much cheese and calories is in just one of those things. Just one quesadilla is equal to an hour of intense work at the gym for me; just one is over 500 calories.
I don’t need to be eating like that and neither do my dogs.
If you’re anything like me, chances are your dogs get a small taste of whatever you’re eating. Inviting my dogs to share my life, and occasionally my dinner plate, has made me much, much more dedicated to eating tasty, but healthy food. I started looking for ways to enjoy my favourite food, like quesadillas, without all the excess.
These rolled quesadillas are still tasty, even though they only have 25% of the cheese.
Rolling your quesadilla up allows you to load it up with chicken and veggies, but you don’t need nearly as much cheese to hold it all together. It still tastes great; in fact, I think I prefer this less cheesy version.

You need:
4 – tortilla shells (I like to use gluten-free ones, but if you and your dogs are wheat-tolerant, go ahead and use wheat.)
1 c. cooked, shredded chicken breast
½ cup. mixed bell peppers
½ cup shredded, low fat cheddar cheese

Heat a non-stick pan to medium-high heat.
Lay out your tortilla shells and spoon chicken and sweet peppers into the center of each one. Sprinkle with a small amount of cheese. Roll tortilla tightly, adding a small amount of cheese to the “seam”. You may need to use a toothpick to keep them from unrolling until the cheese melts and holds them shut. Place seam side down in the pan and cook until golden brown, about 1 – 2 min. Roll the tortilla over and brown the next side. Repeat until all sides of the tortilla roll have been browned and the cheese is melty.

Humans might enjoy a zesty salsa to dip these tortilla rolls in, but thee dogs will love them just as they are: plain. My dogs love it when they see a few bites of these quesadilla rolls left on my plate. They just know those leftover bites are for them!

What do you put in your quesadillas? Are they dog friendly?

A note from Two Little Cavaliers: Cooking for Dogs – do not use onions as an ingredient as they can cause anemia even in small amounts.





Meet our Cooking for Dogs Contributor Jodi and her dogs Kolchak and Felix

Jodi is a canine nutrition and small animal naturopathy student hailing from beautiful Vancouver, BC. (That’s in Canada, eh?) She loves to experiment in the kitchen, creating tasty (and healthy) treats for her two dogs, Felix & Kolchak and the rest of her family. Jodi’s blog, Kol’s Notes follows the antics of the irrepressible Kolchak as he celebrates good food, good friends and the good life.