Chicken Fajita One Night for Dinner, Then Chicken Fajita Salad for Lunch- With a DIY Fajita Seasoning :)

Heres what you need for delicous Chicken Fajitas: 

• 1lb boneless skinless chicken, cut in to thin slices
• 1 large sweet bell pepper (yellow, red, or blue), sliced
• 1 large onion, sliced 
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil 
• 1 tablespoon or so of Fajita seasoning
• 1 package of Whole Wheat tortilla wraps 

(Additional: Lettuce, Tomatoes, Re-fried Beans, Guacamole, Sour Cream, Salsa)

Just heat oil over medium high heat and cook chicken until its almost done, then add sliced onions and peppers. By the time the peppers and onions are tender your chicken will be done. Toss in the seasoning, if you need a little water to get it to mix well use about 1 tablespoon. Serve on tortilla wraps with any toppings you choose.

D-I-Y Fajita Seasoning 

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 2 Tbsp. chili powder
• 1 Tbsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. paprika
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 2-1/2 tsp. crushed chicken bouillon cube
• 1-1/2 tsp. onion powder
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp. cumin

Preparation:

Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Pour into small glass or plastic container, seal tightly and store in a cool, dry place. Makes the equivalent of 3 packets of commercial or purchased Fajita Seasoning Mix. (I like to save my used seasoning containers and then re-use them for my own homemade seasoning. )


Now on to my delicious lunch salad.

Chicken Fajita Salad

Chili Tortilla Straws: Cut using kitchen scissors half of a whole wheat tortilla in to slices. Spray with cooking spray sprinkle with a little salt and chili powder and toast until crispy. Watch it though, to make sure it doesn't burn.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of chicken fajita mix 
• 2 cups of lettuce (romaine) 
• 1/4 cup black beans, rinsed 
• 1/4 cup whole kernel corn
• 2% or Reduced Fat Fiesta Blend Cheese 
• 1/4 cup chopped tomatoes 
• Tortilla straws 
• 1-2 tbsp light sour cream
• Low Cal Restaurant Style Salsa (I probably did and 1/4 cup but use as much as you want because it is so low in calories)

Directions:

Just add this all together starting with the lettuce, tomatoes, beans, corn, cheese, chicken fajita, and top with salsa and sour cream.  Easy as that. :)

Closer View

Happy Late St. Patrick's Day! .....Slacking.

One: My neck got a little better. I was all energized and excited for spring so I did some yard work (raking and hoeing). I probably shouldn't have done that because now my neck hurts again and it'll probably take another week until I feel 100% better. This is really messing with my ability to work out, clean, and take care of kids. My house is a disaster and I just don't have the ability to care right now. I've been doing the minimum of cleaning possible. And I'm using the heck out of my simple meals and slow cooker meals. This leaves me with A LOT of foodie posts to update on for the next few days. :)

Two: I'm a little preoccupied with reading A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

With that said, I know I am late on the St. Patrick's Day post but Oh well. I think I'll share with family anyways.

I think a lot of people go with corned beef, cabbage, hash, green beer, ect. ect. for St. Patrick's Day. I love all those things, my husband- no! Getting him to eat cabbage would be like trying to fit a square in to a circle. Not possible. So I went for something I know everyone will enjoy: bangers and mash, and leprechaun poop cookies. Yes, leprechaun poops cookies. It gave Blake a pretty big giggle. I mean, all kids giggle about poop. Just the word poop itself, is funny.
In retrospect, bangers and mash is something we have often regardless. I’ve never thought about it before as being Irish until I decided to Google some traditional Irish foods. We love smoked sausage around here, and I love mashed potatoes…it works.

Bangers and Mash

Ingredients:

Bangers

24 oz Smoked Sausage Links

2 Yellow Onions

3 TBSP Olive Oil

Mash

4 large potatoes, peeled, diced, and boiled

1-2 TBSP of Worcestershire sauce

2 TBSP butter

Pepper and Garlic Salt to taste 

Directions: Start off by peeling your potatoes, dicing them, then adding them to a pot of water, bring the potatoes to a boil and boil until tender and falling apart. While your potatoes boil, heat oil in a large pan, add sausage and cook them until almost brown while cutting your onions. Add your sliced onions, and cover pan with a lid. At this point, drain your potatoes and add to a large bowl. Smash them with butter and W sauce. Season with pepper and garlic salt, keep your potatoes slightly chunky.

And there you have it, my twist on Bangers and Mash. If you want to add a vegetable on the side you could do sautéed cabbage.  

 I don't know if anyone remembers but there was a recipe going around for unicorn poop cookies? I've yet to make those yet but I remembered it as I was trying to think of a sweet treat to make in honor of St. Patrick's Day, and it obviously had to be green so this is what we came up with on a whim out of ingredients I had on hand and usually always keep in my pantry. Also, obviously, you don't need to call them Leprechaun Poop Cookies if you're trying to raise prim and proper little kids. lol We don't really care around here. Poop is poop.

Making cookies with Mommy!

Leprechaun Poop Cookies 

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup milk

6 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (could use almond or mint if you have it on hand)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 oz confetti candy sprinkles

green food coloring

Powdered sugar

Baking time!

Directions: Preheat oven at 350 degrees. With a mixer, mix your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add green food coloring in to the milk, and then add alternately the flour, salt and milk. The dough is going to be thick and you may need to get a spoon and scrap the sides and do a little spoon mixing if your stand mixer can’t get it all the way. Add your sprinkles. Roll in to balls about 1-2 inch, and then flatten on to and greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes, keep checking on it to make sure that the cookies do not brown or else they will be very hard.Once the cookies have cooled, cover them with powdered sugar. 

After dinner we made leprechauns and watched: (Excuse the fat that the following will be pictures from my iPhone and poor quality compared to my camera.)

 Does anyone else remember this coming on TV YEARS AGO? I remember I was little, and my mom let me stay up and watch it because I was always obsessed with Romeo and Juliet (even at a young age), fairies, leprechauns, and really  just ANYTHING magical! It has become my own little tradition over the years (minus last year when all my movies were stuck in storage in Montana). Its basically the story of Romeo and Juliet but with fairies and leprechauns. During the movie we made leprechauns using just construction paper and googly eyes. I cut the pieces out and they glued them together. Liam had help from daddy, and that's why you will notice that their leprechaun is a zombie leprechaun. *sigh*

admiring his work

coloring his hat

zombie leprechaun *sighagain*

Done with his leprechaun which is as big as he is.

So I am going to try to catch up with foodie posts for the next few days, stay in touch and come back! :)

A Family's Best Friend

Uh, Sorry his Lipstick is out.

 

I thought I would go all, crazy dog lady on you.  We "adopted" Ace from a family member who couldn't keep him anymore. So, you could say we were friends before starting a relationship!:) We stayed with Travis's dad and step mom while remodeling our house (we had to completely gut it and replace everything). Ace and I bonded while we were at his dad's house because Ace lived next door.  We had a black lab/shephard mix named June at first but she was CRAZY, hyper, and NEVER stayed in the yard. We had to keep her in a kennel, then created a zip line for her. One day I let her off to get some more exercise, popped her on the butt for jumping on Blake and scratching him very badly, and then she ran off in to the woods. I do believe someone picked her up though because she never came home. Later while at the grocery store I saw her in a truck, I'm thinking a new family has her now. So I'm not worried anymore about that. I'm happy she's okay and with a new family. 

Anyways, rambling here, Ace fits so perfectly with our family. He gets in to trouble every once in awhile but ultimately he is a sweet big loveable guy. We all love him soooo much. So, when he went missing on Valentines day I was super worried. Not to mention, Travis informed me that out her in the boonies people will shoot strange dogs that come on their property. What-the-heck??? Turns out, someone saw him on our road and didn't know that he belonged to us so they called animal control. *sigh* It's really our fault. We've had Ace since (I think October) and we've yet to get him a Pet Id tag, or update his rabies shot. So, needless to say, that is all done after a huge headache. 

This reminds me of Ace. LOL (Doug from the movie Up)

It really made me see how important Ace is to me. I don't know if that sounds silly or corny? He is just the perfect dog for my family. He is so calm and reserved (for a 2 year old lab). He is the sweetest guy. When I first met Ace, I was all look, "Wow you're kind of creepy looking." Because he has some weird golden eyes that I've never seen before. Now I like his eyes, because it makes him different. :) Honestly, when I'm having a bad day he always cheers me up. So, usually when I want to reward Ace or just when I want to give him a treat it's typically meat or his regular store bought treats. But today, I want to share with you my favorite recipe to make just for doggies. Dog cake! Because our fur babies deserve to feel special and to have tasty "sweet" treats too. :) 

Puppy-dog Cake 

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup soft butter
1 (2 1/2 ounce) jar beef baby food (or you can puree any meat)
4 eggs

1 cup shredded carrots

1/3 cup honey
2 slices beef jerky ((2 to 3)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease cake pan with cooking spray.  
Cream butter and honey until smooth.  Mix together your wet ingredients with the butter mixture, and then mix your dry ingredients together in a second bowl. Mix dry ingredients into beef mixture until batter is smooth. Crumble beef jerky and fold into batter. Pour batter into pan.
Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes.  (watch this as baking times vary)
Ice with plain yogurt, peanut butter, or cottage cheese. (Or even a mixture of two, or all) J
Store uneaten cake in refrigerator.