Dinner Journal #4, a two parter
Fantastic Four-Pepper Fajitas
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 orange pepper
1 large yellow onion
Olive oil
Tapatio hot sauce
Sour cream
"Mexican Blend" grated cheese (You can get this at most grocery stores, but Costco has it in bulk for very cheap)
Taco seasoning (again, I recommend Costco) (it's hard to gauge exactly how much to use total, so taste it as you go along, but I'd recommend using at least as much as you would for a pound of beef, added slowly throughout the cooking process)
Flour tortillas
Cut the chicken into short, thin strips and fry them in the oil, adding some hot sauce and sprinkling some taco seasoning over the mixture as it cooks. The hot sauce you are adding at this point won't have as much effect on the final spiciness as you might expect, but it WILL add to the flavor, so don't be afraid of it. (But don't pour it on, either. Add several dashes, and add more later as you cook if you want the taste stronger.) Cut the peppers and onion into thin strips, and add them to the pan when the chicken is close to fully cooked. Stir-fry them together, adding more taco seasoning (and more hot sauce, if you want) until the peppers are cooked but not completely limp. Heat the tortillas very briefly in a microwave or oven, then smear a daub of sour cream over them, fill them with the fajita mix, sprinkle with grated cheese, and add some more hot sauce to really spicy the dish up. Enjoy!
Amazing Quesadilla
Fajita filling (from the above recipe)
Flour tortillas (burrito size)
"Mexican Blend" grated cheese
Tapatio hot sauce
Sour cream
Tomato, sliced
Romaine lettuce
Place a flour tortilla on a baking tray. Sprinkle it lightly with cheese (not quite to the outer edges, leave at least 1/2 inch) , then add a layer of the fajita filling over the cheese. Make this layer thin, but a complete (dense?) cover. Add more cheese to the top, again making a complete cover. Remember, melted cheese takes up a whole lot less space than grated cheese, so even though this looks like a pile, it'll thin down. Sprinkle with hot sauce, then place another tortilla on top, and bake at 350* until the edges begin to brown and the top feels crispy. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. The tortillas will become significantly more rigid at this time. Smear the top with a thin layer of sour cream and cut into 4 or 6 wedges. Place a tomato slice and a piece of lettuce over each wedge, and serve.
Notes: I usually make these dishes as a pair - fajitas the first night, and then quesadillas the next out of the leftovers. It's a nice way to turn the leftovers into a dish that's different enough in feel to keep you interested, but adds only the lettuce and tomato as new ingredients.
You may have noticed that all the recipes so far share 1 common ingredient - the yellow onion. This is no accident. Onions are delicious, healthy, dirt cheap, and last a long time. I can't recommend them enough. Not all my dishes will have onions, but a great many of them will.