A Sizzlin’ Fajita Friday!

Where did February go?

Every time MigL and I happen to watch Paula Deen on Food Network (let me clarify we don’t intentionally watch PD), it seems like we should ask, “would you like some buttah with that?”   We always get a kick when PD says, “ya’ll we’re gonna start this recipe by ______”.  And more often than not, it’s a stick of butter. If I got a quarter every time she said butter in a show, boy I’d be rich!  I know we’re in a recession, but pennies don’t buy much so I’ve resorted to quarters. 

1 stick, 2 sticks, even melted butter.  Isn’t that what Julia Child cooked with too and is part of what made her famous in a fanciful way?  I have a feeling that butter alone makes a name for itself; but if you’re one to sell it with everything you make, you’d practically be a legend.  I have to say butter does make omelets SO much better, but that’s another post.  I know a little butter makes the world go round, but I seriously think PD just piles that buttah on.

For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to find something stable, amidst the craziness in my life.  I was tired of trying to find something to cook every day to what feels like the last minute; and with a tight budget, it can be a bit daunting.  I wanted something no-brainer.  So, I came up with Fajita Friday.  Dinner every Friday is now the official Fajita Friday; except that the last few Friday’s I’ve had some flop Fajita Fridays.  The recipes weren’t as good as I’d hoped – and then on a whim I decided to invent what a fajita should taste like.  The results were disappointing.  Oh well, there’s no learning like the present, right?

So I decided to do a little homework and found a recipe that will now become a part of my Fajita Friday.  Much to my surprise and relief, PD doesn’t cook everything with buttah.  In my search, I was looking for something quick and tasty – WITH pictures included.  It’s a crime if I can’t see what I’ll potentially be making and I’ll bypass a recipe if it doesn’t have any pictures – after all, shouldn’t the food you’re eating not only taste good but, look good too?

On a Friday evening, after a long week, who really wants to wait 3 hours or more for something to marinate - unless you’ve got the whole day off, or even an afternoon; then I’d consider you, my friend, a lucky duck and I completely wish I were you.   Otherwise, I need something quick and tasty and more often than not, I need it right away; although at times, it does take a good 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get dinner finished.  (On a side note, I should start eating a snack in between the time I get off work and dinner so that I’m not as hungry).

Perhaps every now and again I’ll try to find new fajita recipes to prevent from being bored; but for now this is our new favorite.  I was even very surprised when MigL got seconds!

Gold Medal Sizzling Fajitas

(adapted from Food Network)

Serves 8

Ingredients
1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon fajita seasoning
2 teaspoons yellow mustard 
Dash green Tabasco sauce (or any hot sauce) 
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast
1/2 large onion, halved and sliced lengthwise 
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
8 (8-inch) corn tortillas

Directions 
In a heavy duty resalable plastic bag, combine 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil, garlic, cumin, garlic powder, fajita seasoning, mustard, hot sauce, salt, pepper and chicken. Seal and toss the bag around to coat.  Marinate in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Preheat a cast iron skillet in a preheated 400 degree F oven for at least 20 minutes, to get a good sizzle when you plate the fajitas.

Heat the outside grill or a large indoor grill pan to medium-high heat. Remove the chicken from the marinade and place it on the hot grill, discard the marinade. Cook chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Slice the chicken into strips.

In a large skillet heat up the remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and fry the onions and bell peppers until crisp-tender with some salt and pepper.

Wrap the tortillas in a paper towel and warm in the microwave for 1 minute. 

When you are ready to serve, remove the cast iron servers from the oven and quickly arrange the meat and peppers and onions on it (wait for the ooh’s and ahh’s!). It will immediately start to sizzle from their fat and moisture. Serve sizzling immediately with the warm tortillas and other accompaniments.

Latin Cook’s Notes
Oh man, dinner was fajita-licious!  While I was preparing the marinade for the chicken it smelled so good; but you have to wait until it’s ready to cook (when all of the flavors have marinated) to have something incredibly great.  I think the kicker was the mustard – since I didn’t have any lemons, I wondered if this might do the trick – and believe me, it does.  You’ve GOT to try this out.  There was a pretty good party in my mouth!

Cook once, eat all week

This was today’s motto since I had a day off from work.  Hooray!  That said, I only managed to make two dishes.  I suppose three if you count a side dish.

Today I made an Autumn Pot Roast with Horseradish Sauce and a Layered Mexican Chicken.

I wanted to get some things out of the way so I began making the horseradish sauce.  Normally I don’t really care for this type of sauce but figured I’d make the exception this time.

Next came the halved red potatoes.

I then put them in a  large bowl along with the baby carrots and sweet potatoes so they’d be ready to go.

Once the meat had browned, it was ready to go into the oven.

 

I took a quick break and grabbed one of my favorite cup o’ joe’s – a nonfat vanilla latte.  I felt like I needed an extra shot of energy so I asked for an extra espresso boost.  Wowzers, did that wake me up!

Next I began making preparations for the Layered Mexican Chicken dish.

After boiling the chicken breast and letting it rest I began assembling the dish which included tortillas, sour cream, black beans, cheese, cumin and green chilies.

Shortly after I had finished assembling the layered Mexican dish, I was a bit hungry, so I decided to make a smoothie.  The bananas that I have were starting to get a bit soft so I used some of them, along with some blueberries, soy milk and a tad of vanilla extract and blended them to make my smoothie.  Next time I think I’ll add a little bit of ice to make it colder.

A little while after the pot roast was complete!

Time to eat!  I added some rice and more veggies.

 

cook’s thoughts

I have to admit that I didn’t follow the recipe exactly for the pot roast.  I used sweet potatoes instead of turnips because I didn’t feel quite comfortable using them.  I don’t think I’ve ever had them…. I also had to boil the potatoes, carrots in a pot to soften them up after the veggies had cooked with the meat; otherwise we would have eaten crunchy potatoes!  As I was getting ready to upload the pictures I took for the blog I realized that I’d totally forgotten to add the horseradish!!  Silly me.  Oh well, hopefully next time I’ll remember to add it.  It’s still sitting in the fridge, just like the directions said.  Just forgot to take it out! :D .  As I was eating the pot roast, it was a bit drier than I would have liked and decided that I’d use the leftovers to make roast beef sandwiches – it practically tasted like roast beef.  Maybe you’ll have better luck at keeping it moist.

Onto the Layered Mexican Chicken.  I thought it was OK for a lasagna-style dish.  I’m not too crazy about it.  I’ll have to get creative with the leftovers, for sure.

Autumn Pot Roast with Horseradish Sauce

prep time: 15 minutes
cook time: 2 hrs 30 min

serves: 8

ingredients

2 lbs boneless bottom round roast, trimmed
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup reduced-sodium beef broth
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 1/4 lbs baby potatoes, halved
1 1/2 cup baby carrots
2 medium turnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt
3 tbsp prepared horseradish
1 tsp Dijon mustard

directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sprinkle the beef with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt.  Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add the beef and cook, turning frequently, until browned, about 8 minutes.  Add the broth, stirring to scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.  Add the onion, garlic and thyme; bring to a boil.  Cover and bake, turning once, 1 1/2 hours.

Add the potatoes, carrots, and turnips to the Dutch oven.  Bake, covered, until the beef and vegetables are fork-tender, 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the horseradish sauce.  Combine the yogurt, horseradish, mustard and the remaining 1/4 tsp salt in a small bowl.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Transfer the beef to a cutting board and slice across the grain into 16 slices.  Serve with the vegetables and the horseradish sauce.

Layered Mexican Chicken

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes

serves: 12

Ingredients

1 spray olive oil cooking spray
2 pounds uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast
30 oz canned black beans, rinsed and drained
3 cups fat-free sour cream
2 cups shredded reduced-fat Mexican-style cheese, divided
8 oz Chopped green chilies, two 4-oz cans
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
12 medium corn tortillas, cut into 2-inch strips
1 cup salsa, mild, medium or hot

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Coat a lasagna pan with cooking spray.

Place chicken in medium saucepan and fill with enough cold water just to cover chicken.  Set pan over high heat and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 10 to 15 minutes; drain.  When chicken is cool enough to handle, cut into 1-inch pieces.

Transfer chicken to a large bowl and add beans, sour cream, 1 cup shredded cheese, chilies, cumin and pepper; mix well and set aside.

Arrange half of tortillas in bottom of prepared lasagna pan, overlapping pieces to cover surface.  Top tortillas with half of chicken mixture, layer with remaining tortillas and then top with remaining chicken mixture.  Sprinkle with remaining cup of cheese.

Bake until filling is bubbly and cheese is melted, about 30 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes before slicing into 12 pieces.  Serve with salsa on the side.

Time for bed!  It’s been so nice sleeping in the past couple of days.  I just know I’m going to have a hard time getting up tomorrow morning at 6.

More soup for you!

So I made it to the library earlier today and searched for anything Julia Child.  To my dismay there were only two books about her and/or written about her that remained at the library.  The rest were either checked out or somewhere on the shelf.  So I checked out those two books – From Julia’s Kitchen and The Biography of Julia Child.  I’m actually looking forward to reading the latter of the two.  What I really wanted to get was Julia’s recount of her time in France, but I guess I’ll have to wait until it gets returned back to the library.

Tonight’s new recipe was a Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Cook’s thoughts

It wasn’t as spicy as I thought it would be.  I think next time I think I’ll add a can of Rotel and/or finely diced jalapenos to give it the kick it needs. Overall it was a good chicken soup fit for a rainy day like today.

Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes

serves: 4

Ingredients

1 (14 1/2 oz) can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies
1 (14-oz) can reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cups thawed frozen mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, corn, and red bell pepper)
1 cup water
2 tsp ground cumin
1 cup chopped cooked chicken breast
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 tbsp lime juice
12 baked tortilla chips, crumbled

Directions

Combine the tomatoes, broth, vegetables, water, and cum in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the vegetables are tender, 10 minutes.

Stir in the chicken and cook until heated through, 2 minutes.  Stir in the cilantro and lime juice.  Top each serving with 3 of the tortilla chips and serve at once.  Or omit the tortilla chips and transfer to individual microwave-safe containers.  Let cool, cover, and refrigerate up to 3 days.  To reheat, microwave each 1 1/2-cup serving on High until heated through, 2 minutes.  Top with the tortilla chips just before eating.

Disgruntled chicken

I have a confession to make.

I hate cooking chicken. I hate it even more when it takes 2 1/2 hours to cook. Last night I attempted to cook chicken in a pan. For some reason I thought it would take about 20 minutes. Not so true. I'd seared the chicken on medium heat, then occasionally set it to medium-high heat. Twenty minutes later I took it off thinking it'd be done. Not even remotely close. Still pink, still "semi-alive". I then decided to put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Still not fully cooked.

As I put the chicken in yet again in the oven, I thought to myself, how long does chicken take to cook? How freaking long does it take?! By the time I began cooking the chicken it was about 6:00 p.m. Finally, after much frustration, hunger, and feeling like I was going to pass out because I hadn't eaten yet (even though I had been snacking in between to keep myself sustained), the moment finally came when it was done. An hour and a half later.

It tasted like perfection. How ironic. My husband even thought it tasted pretty good. Winner winner, chicken dinner. With rice. Just another day in the kitchen.