Classic Fajitas

Fajitas are one of my favorite meals for so many reasons!  In the summer they can be prepared entirely on the grill.  No pots and pans to clean up afterwards. The meat is not the central item of the meal.  It is easy to pack your tortilla with veggies and other proteins (cheese & beans).  This helps to save a bit in the meat department on your grocery bill.  Finally, this meal can be completely prepped, left in the fridge for the day and then prepared when you get home.

Fajita meat is great as a carry-over ingredient in the fridge.  Grill extra meat to put in a taco salad later in the week or add with cheese and tortillas for quesadillas.

If you buy your boneless-skinless chicken in bulk when it is on sale, make up the marinade recipe; add it to the chicken in a quart zip-top bag before you put your chicken in the freezer.  Defrost when you are ready for it and you will have marinated chicken ready to go!

This week I made our fajitas with chicken, but you can also make them with your favorite grilling beef.

Classic Fajitas

Ingredients

1 batch of Fajita Marinade (below)

1-2 pounds boneless/skinless chicken breast

2-3 Bell Peppers, sliced

2 small Sweet Onions, sliced

3 cups Shredded Lettuce

3 cups Diced Tomato

1 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese

½ cup Sour Cream

½ cup Salsa

2 cups (or 1 can) Black beans, Refried beans or Pinto beans (optional)

1 package of your favorite burrito-size tortillas

Fajita Marinade:

3 Tablespoons Lime Juice

1/3 cup Water

1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic

½ teaspoon Liquid Smoke

1 teaspoon Cumin

¼ teaspoon Chili Powder

¼ teaspoon Black Pepper

¼ teaspoon Salt

Directions: Whisk the above ingredients together and add to meat for 4+ hours.

Directions:

Preparation

1.  Place chicken and marinade in a zip-top bag and allow it to marinate at least 4 hours


2.  Create a foil packet (like we did with the potatoes) for the sliced onions and peppers.  Add a bit of olive oil or spray the bottom foil with non-stick spray to keep them from sticking to the foil.


3.  Prep your toppings: dice the tomatoes, shred the lettuce, grate the cheese, and put salsa and sour cream in serving dishes if you wish.



4.  Put beans in a microwave dish to prepare for heating at the last minute.

Cooking
1.  Start your grill and bring to medium-low coals or heat
2.  Place meat and veggie packet on the grill
3.  Cook until meat is done appropriately. (Chicken cooked to 170°F, beef at least 145°F.)
4.  Remove meat and veggie packet from the grill.
5.  Microwave beans and tortillas to warm them up while you slice the meat.
6.  Place veggies and meat slices on the serving platter or bowl of your choice and serve with all of your prepared toppings.  Enjoy! (sorry for the poor picture - at this point we were too focused on eating!)










Spanish rice or chips and salsa are great side dishes along side fajitas, but this time around, we just had straight up fajitas – grilled in the rain – but no less delicious!

Click Here for a printable version of this recipe.

Linked up at LifeAsMom.com's BBQ Recipes Ultimate Recipe Swap -

Blueberries!

Yesterday I packed up GBaby and the stroller and brought along HandyMan to help with the picking and we went for fresh local blueberries.  There is a great organic blueberry farm about ten minutes from where we live where we pick your own blueberries for $1.65 a quart.  Be still my heart!  So we go, pick these little gems by the hand full - literally - and bring them home to stash for the winter. I feel like a squirrel.  Most will get stashed anyway, some will end up in homemade yogurt!  In an hour and a half we had about two gallons of blueberries to bring home - and since it wasn't quite 8 quarts, they only charged us for 7.  Wasn't that nice!  Since blueberries are so easy to process for storage I've got some in the dehydrator and some on trays in the freezer and plans to go back for more blueberries on Friday.  We'll see how the week pans out!

Want to know more about freezing blueberries?  Check out my article at Helium.com.

What's your favorite thing to make with fresh (or frozen) blueberries?

TM on Leftovers & Carry Over Ingredients (COIs)

I am blessed that HandyMan will eat almost anything and doesn’t mind leftovers at all.  Often at the end of a meal, I will plate up the leftover in lunch size containers that can be easily grabbed out of the fridge on his way to work.  Sometimes though, I’ve planned the excess for a second meal all together.  I like to call these Carry-over ingredients.

When there are enough leftovers for a full second meal, I try add something new to the meal so that it will look a little different the second time around.  If we had lasagna with green beans the first time, I’ll make salad and bread sticks the second time.  If we had soup and fresh bread the first time, it will be soup and sandwiches the second time.

With my carry-over ingredients (tagged as COI's), the idea is to cook extra to save cooking time later.  So, if I'm grilling chicken for fajitas, I may grill extra meat to be used in quesadillas or taco salad later in the week.  If I cook white rice to go with stir-fry, I’ll make a double batch and add cilantro and tomato to the leftover rice to have a Spanish rice side later in the week.

By mixing and matching with your main dish or protein items, you can cook once but use the cooked items on your menu in a number of different ways, saving you time on meal preparations later down the road.   Look for the "Carry-over Ingredient" icon and the "Time Saver" icon in my posts for tips on how to get the most for your meal preparation efforts!

What are your favorite ways to save time and energy when cooking?

Grilled Potatoes

My ancestral roots reach back into the Midwest and deep down I am a meat and potatoes girl.  While HandyMan considers it blasphemy, I can give or take the turkey on Thanksgiving, just pass the mashed potatoes!  In the summer I love to grill potatoes because it is so easy, no pots or pans and oh so yummy when they're done!  Here's how I do it:

Ingredients:

3 lbs Red Potatos

2 Tbs butter or margarine

Salt & Pepper to taste

First I take the red potatos - mostly because I like to save time by not peeling them.  You can also use other potato varieties with thin skins.  Slice them up into thin slices, throw them in a bowl and microwave until they just begin to soften up.

Then, you will need two pieces of foil large enough to surround your potato slices.  I recommend a heavy duty foil that will stand up to transporting and grilling.  Spread your potato slices on the bottom piece of foil and fold the sides up about 1 inch.  Then, dot your potatoes with  butter and sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

Then, put the second piece of foil over the potatoes and fold bottom piece of foil uparound the top, sealing the packet.

Place packet over medium-low coals or flame and allow to cook 8-15 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.  To check, carefully slice a hole in the top of the packet.  If they need additional cooking time, push the foil back together.

Once the potatoes are fully cooked, place back in the serving bowl and enjoy!

The variations on this are endless but here are a few that we really like .  Instead of salt, pepper and butter:

• Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary to taste


• Add olive oil or butter, 1 small onion sliced, salt and pepper


• Add olive oil, garlic salt and pepper


• Add butter and fresh parsley

What do you like to add to your roasted potatoes?