March 27, 2017

Easy Oven Fajitas + Fajita Bowls

laura.smoak@gmail.com Chicken, Prep Ahead, Quick and Easy Mains, Veggies 4 Comments

Stepping off of the freezer meals this week, and bringing you one of our favorite slash easiest slash cheapest weeknight dinners turned workday lunches ever. I’m talking about oven fajitas. With tons of veggies and lean protein, what we have here is one weeknight dinner of fajitas with all the fixins and two days of fajita bowl lunches ready to go with minimal work.

You’ve seen oven fajitas on Pinterest for a while now, and I can’t really claim these to be very far off except maybe the addition of mushrooms? And taking them a step further by throwing in the whole meal prep thing?

I first need to discuss the ease of the whole oven fajita sitch. I generally plan to have these on a Monday night, so we get dinner Monday and lunches on Tuesday and Wednesday out of the way, and I generally prep it on Sunday. While I’m already in a veggie chopping groove after making our weekly veggie bags, I just finish up with the veggies for these oven fajitas. If you really don’t like veggie prep, you can buy most of these pre-chopped. I’m just so used to chopping things that it doesn’t take me more than 5-10 minutes, but if you need to save a little time then the prepared veggies are the way to go. Once I have everything ready, I just leave them covered in the baking dish for the next day. When I’m ready to cook the oven fajitas, I add the chicken, olive oil and seasoning. (Also – helpful hint – have the meat guy at your grocery store cut the chicken breast for you to save extra time and mess.)

While we generally just do standard fajitas for night one – chicken, veggies, tortillas, cheese, sour cream, salsa, avocado – I prepare other ingredients for the fajita bowls that we’ll have for lunch. While the oven fajitas are cooking, I make white rice (any rice works, but my rice cooker is a one-trick pony) and beans and corn for the fajita bowls. The beans and corn are just cooked with a little of the same taco seasoning as the oven fajitas, and really just need to be heated up to cook out the powderiness (word?) of the seasoning.

As written this recipe makes a ton, but that is because I want to get those three meals out of it. The fajita bowls look like a lot of food – and they are – but it’s mostly veggies and protein, so the calorie count is still in the 400-500 range (including a serving of shredded cheddar and sour cream). You can change up the amount of veggies and chicken used to cut down on the number of servings, but when you can get so many easy meals out of it, why in the world would you?

Oven Fajitas

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts – cut into strips (get your meat counter guy to do this)
3-4 bell peppers – cut into strips (I use 2 green and 1-2 red depending on what I have on hand)
1 large or 2 small yellow onions – sliced
1 lb white mushrooms – sliced
1 tbsp olive oil (plus more to drizzle over chicken)
1 tbsp taco seasoning (plus more to drizzle over chicken)
For fajitas: tortillas, optional toppings (avocado, salsa, shredded cheese, sour cream)
For fajita bowls:
Cooked rice
One can EACH beans and corn
A little taco seasoning

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Slice all veggies and combine in a baking dish. Add the olive oil and taco seasoning, and mix well.
Place the chicken strips on top of the veggies. Drizzle with another 1-2 tsp oil and taco seasoning, and rub over to make sure each piece is covered.
Bake uncovered for 35-45 minutes, or until chicken is done.
To make fajitas: serve chicken and veggies with tortillas and toppings of choice.
To make fajita bowls:
- While oven fajitas are cooking, prepare the rice.
- Rinse and drain the black beans and corn, then cook in a skillet over medium heat with about 2 tsp taco seasoning. I just cook them long enough to let the water from rinsing cook off.
- Assemble the bowls – place rice in the bottom, top with bean/corn mixture and then the oven fajitas mixture. Add any additional toppings as preferred.
Enjoy!

March 20, 2017

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas

laura.smoak@gmail.com Quick and Easy Mains, Veggies 2 Comments

Oh hai, sweet potato black bean enchiladas. You’re super simple + super flavorful + super cheesy and help us keep our sometimes-vegetarian card…this might be love. Y’all, Andy – the meatatarian – scarfs these down and takes no issue with “meatless Monday” if these are on the menu.

Vegetarian dishes don’t generally do as well on the blog as other, more meaty dishes do, but it would be selfish of me not to share this recipe. This dish comes together quickly, and the filling can be made in advance if you really need a quickie meal on a weeknight. (I wouldn’t recommend totally assembling that far in advance because the sauce will make the tortillas too soggy.)

While some of you may be less than enthused about a vegetarian dish, let me just assure you this meal doesn’t leave you wanting more. The bulkiness of the potatoes and beans combined with the heat from the chilies and spices (and let us not forget that ooey gooey cheese situation on top) gives this dish a stick-to-your-ribs-comfort-food rating of 100.

So far we haven’t given Anna Ruth these sweet potato black bean enchiladas because they do have a definite kick, and I’m just not ready to experience the wrath of a threenager that just ate something too spicy. That just plays to our favor. We get dinner and two lunches out of this recipe with the following break-down:

Dinner – one for me, two for Andy
Lunch 1 – one for me, one and a half for Andy
Lunch 2 – one for me, one and a half for Andy

You can serve these as a stand-alone meal, or serve with roasted broccoli or some other green veggie that can roast at the same time. No matter what you choose you can’t go wrong!

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients:

3 sweet potatoes – peeled and small cubed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 can black beans – rinsed and drained
1 shallot – small dice
1 (4oz) can mild diced green chilies
½ tsp garlic powder
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
¼ tsp EACH – salt and pepper
8 flour tortillas
1 (14 oz) can red enchilada sauce
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
Optional toppings: avocado, sour cream, cilantro

Directions:

Prepare the sweet potatoes: preheat oven to 375 degrees while you’re cubing your sweet potatoes. (You can peel them, but I like to leave the skin on.) Spread the sweet potatoes into a single layer on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt/pepper. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, while you prepare the remaining filling ingredients.
Prepare the filling: in a large bowl, combine the cooked sweet potato cubes, black beans, shallot, chilies and all spices (through S/P). Stir until everything is mixed well.
Prepare the enchiladas: change oven heat to 350 degrees. Grease a rectangular dish and pour about 1/3-1/4 cup enchilada sauce in the bottom. Fill each tortilla with the mixture, roll and place seam side down in the baking dish. Add any remaining mixture to the open spaces in the dish after you’ve stuffed all of the tortillas.
Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the tortillas, making sure everyone is covered. Top with the shredded cheese, loosely tent and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until hot.
Enjoy!

March 13, 2017

Freezer Quesadillas

laura.smoak@gmail.com Chicken, Freezer Friendly, Prep Ahead, Quick and Easy Mains 2 Comments

The lack of organized photos in this post is a good indication of life right now: busy. We have six weekends between now and when baby Pea #2 is due, and four of those are booked. I’m trying to stay on top of posting, but heads up there will be some weeks I won’t have a post. Please bear with me!

If you’re my husband, mom, dad or sister, then I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record, so no need to continue reading. If you’ve been reading this blog for the last few weeks, I may be getting there for you, but today we’re back on the meal-prepping-for-baby train. If I’m being completely transparent, these posts are almost more for me than for you. If we decide to go for #3 down the road, I want to be able to look back at how I prepared for #2.

Anyone that’s done the new baby thing will probably be able to relate, if not let me paint you a picture…

You have a newborn, and your husband has gone back to work, so it’s just you and bebe. Bebe insists on being held during waking hours unless you’re good with constant (ummm, LOUD) crying <– not an exaggeration. The clock strikes three in the afternoon and you suddenly realize you haven’t eaten a single thing all day. Leftovers from last night’s dinner are tonight’s dinner (and it would also require you to put the baby down – see above), so you reach for a tortilla and shredded cheese and nuke it for 30 seconds. It’s one of the few things you’ve found that only take one hand to both prepare and eat. You know you need more, but you’re just too wiped out to make it happen.

Enter these pre-made freezer quesadillas. Stuffed with protein-y chicken and black beans, and ready to eat (one-handed for the love) straight from the freezer in less than three minutes.

Now, I know these aren’t exactly healthy, and my goal is to keep up with the veggie prep once baby Pea #2 arrives, but for me the first several weeks are all about survival. Last time I was totally unprepared for a baby that constantly needed holding. I mean, any moms that have babies that can happily lay in a floor gym or swing for any amount of time should take a moment right now to send up praise hands because having a baby that will not do that makes it that much more physically/mentally/emotionally hard. I loved my time at home with Anna Ruth, but I was just a mess, and I largely attribute that to trying to establish a milk supply while not keeping myself nourished. Sure the hormones played a part, but the physical parts of breastfeeding and not eating had the bigger impact. Knowing what I do now it won’t matter if #2 is also a stage-five clinger. Having simple things like freezer quesadillas ready to go will mean I can better take care of myself before hitting that wall of physical exhaustion in the afternoons from forgetting to eat.

As you can tell by the pictures, I had two little helpers making these freezer quesadillas over the weekend. Anna Ruth and Abigail love helping in the kitchen, so I promote that any chance I can. These quesadillas are perfect for little helpers. There are no exact measurements, so you really just have to supervise to make sure they’re not using too much or too little of any one ingredient.

The recipe here doesn’t include exact measurements because it is all to taste and preference. I used a chicken that I roasted earlier in the day, and large tortillas. You can easily use shredded rotisserie chicken, different cheese and beans and any size tortilla you prefer. This particular batch was one chicken, 2.5 bags of shredded cheese and one can of beans. We made 16 quesadillas, but ran out of black beans after about 12.

Freezer Quesadillas

Ingredients:

1 roasted chicken – shredded (rotisserie chicken works as well)
Shredded cheddar (or other cheese of choice)
Canned black beans – drained and rinsed
Tortillas – any size

Directions:

Preheat a skillet over medium heat.
Prepare tortillas with desired amount of chicken, cheese and black beans.
If freezing*: heat quesadillas on each side just until the cheese melts.
Allow the quesadillas to cool completely, then wrap individually in plastic wrap and then place into a zippered freezer bag.
To reheat
- In the microwave: remove plastic wrap, wrap in a paper towel and heat for 1.5-2 minutes.
- In the oven: remove plastic wrap, wrap in foil and cook at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until heated through.
- On the stovetop: allow to thaw completely in the fridge, then heat in a skillet as you normally would.
Enjoy!

*If eating right away, simply cook as you normally would and serve hot.

March 6, 2017

Freezer Stocking for New Baby

laura.smoak@gmail.com Life 1 Comment

If you’ve followed along for any amount of time, you know one thing I love is to stock my freezer for easy weeknight meals. With baby Pea #2 coming in 7ish weeks, I’m really starting to focus on having meals at the ready. Here are a few I’ve gotten a head start on. I’m hoping to post more freezer ideas in the coming weeks, but mama’s getting tired so we’ll see how that goes! These recipes are great for stocking your own freezer, or to take fresh to a family with a new baby!

First up – roast chicken – this was one of my more recent posts, and I went into some detail about how we make and freeze roast chicken. In addition to having pieces frozen for easy summer night meals (think chicken on top of salad), I’m using some of the breast meat to make freezer quesadillas that I can pull out for an easy lunch while I’m on maternity leave. Really – I can’t stress this enough – this chicken is so juicy that once thawed after frozen it is still 99% as good as it is fresh out of the oven. This is the only chicken recipe I can say that about.

Next – Madras Lentils – used this way, this way and this way.

Pulled Pork Shoulder – we use this for sandwiches, burrito bowls, quesadillas and enchiladas.

Sausage Lasagna Roll-Ups – the easiest weeknight meal. Goes straight from the freezer to oven, and gives us enough leftovers for a lunch or two.

Freezer Breakfast Burritos – I can’t tell you how many times on my last maternity leave that I would look at the clock in the afternoon and realize I hadn’t eaten all day. <– Not good when trying to establish a supply for breastfeeding. These can be reheated in the oven or microwave, and are easy to eat one handed.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Scones – because oatmeal is good for increasing breast milk supply, and because once thawed they just look pretty sitting on the counter in a cake stand.

That’s it for now! As I come up with new ideas in the coming weeks, I’ll be sure to share so stay tuned!