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!