Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Do re mi fajitas

Admit it. You love the smell of the sizzling onions and peppers from the fajita dish at your favorite Mexican restaurant, but you despise the smoke going up your nostrils and burning your eyeballs. There's also the extremely hot cast iron skillet you fear your child grabbing and getting burned from.

Sometimes, you want that Mexican food but don't want your eyes and nostrils burned ;)

Here's a simple way you can make a healthier version of fajitas at home. First, you'll want to substitute flour tortillas for corn tortillas. If you've ever been to Mexico, you know the traditional one is with corn. It's also gluten free!

Another easy substitution is yellow rice for brown rice. Guess what? You can keep the refried or black beans!

For the chicken
Ingredients:
1 green pepper, sliced
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
Extra virgin Olive oil, 3 tbsp
1 lb organic skinless chicken breasts
2tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tbsp lime juice 
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup water 
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Sauté the onion and green pepper over medium heat in 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pan. While that is sautéing, mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the chicken breasts in a medium bowl. Let marinate for about 10 minutes while you continue to sauté the veggies. 



Remove the veggies from pan. Increase heat to medium high. Cook chicken breasts on each side for 5 minutes. Lower  head to medium low, cover, and cook on each side for about 10 minutes. Voila!

For the beans
Ingredients
1 can low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 yellow onion



This part gets so fun! You will need a food processor (or magic bullet). Puree the bell peppers and onion in your food processor. This is an easy way to slide veggies into your beans for the picky eaters! 

Next, bring a small pot to medium heat with the olive oil. You never want to cook olive oil over medium heat, because then you lost it's nutritional benefits. Saute your veggie puree (or what my mom would call sofrito) in the olive oil for about 5 minutes. Then, add the black beans, and about a cup of water, and garlic powder. Stir and bring to a boil. Once the beans are boiling, bring heat down to low, cover and let continue to cooke for about 10 minutes. Turn heat off and leave covered until ready to serve.

For the rice
Ingredients
1 bag of bird's eye steam brown rice
3 tsp lime juice
2 tsp dry cilantro

This is the hardest part. JUST KIDDING! I used to dread cooking brown rice because of how long it took, until I found the little blue bag of brown rice in the freezer isle. It cooks by steaming in the microwave for about 5 minutes. Once the rice is cooked, let it cool for about 4 minutes. Open the bag, pour lime juice and sprinkle cilantro into the bag, and stir with a spoon. Ta-da!


We like to create a "DIY" fajita bar at home, and let each person build their own over the corn tortillas. Enjoy!

Monday, June 15, 2015

Sweet potato chips


Last week a friend shared with me the concept of using a mandolin- best idea ever! A HUGE time saver, and much safer than the traditional knife and chop block.

Lo and behold, I took a trip to Target last night with my daughter to buy her a backpack before the back to school madness begins (I'm glad we went- it was the very last My Little Pony one). Every woman knows how it goes at Target- my $20 trip turned into a $100 trip. One of those items was my new mandolin!

I got to use it for the first time today, and love how these sweet potato chips turned out. Besides a mandolin, here's what you'll need:

-1 sweet potato
-2 tsp garlic powder
-1/2 tbsp olive oil
-crushed black pepper to taste 

Preheat your over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Slice your sweet potato with the lovely mandolin.

Toss the slices in the garlic powder, olive oil, and black pepper.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, turning at halftime, and then broil for 2 minutes. Voila!


Spinach- aka Popeye's fuel

Most of us lack consuming enough vegetables each day to properly fuel our bodies. I've mentioned this before, but the easiest way to include a large amount of vegetables for a smaller bite is to include them in your egg scramble. It takes less than a minute!

Bring your pan to medium heat, spray with coconut oil, and watch your spinach shrink!

Check out my video:

http://youtu.be/HdfJGwpAmYs