HEB Style Beef Fajitas

This is a favorite recipe in our house and is adapted from an HEB recipe. I changed it up a little bit and used beef instead of chicken and added in some veggies.

So here's what you'll need:

Hill Country Fare seasoned beef for fajitas
1/2 small yellow onion
1/2 medium red bell pepper
2 cups baby spinach
Texas Pepper Works candy-krisp jalapenos
4 tbs sour cream
8 flour tortillas


To create yumminess:

Cut the beef into slices, the width of your choice. I also cut off a lot of the fat (but not all) to lower the fat content.

 Slice the onion and red peppers. For the onion I cut it in half first, just to make the pieces smaller.

 Next brown the fajita meat over medium high heat. It took me about 15-20 minutes and they were cooked about medium well (how my husband prefers). You can use your own judgement in this area.

Now you can start to put together your fajita. If you want you can microwave your tortillas to make them easier to fold. I recommend about twenty seconds. Then add about a quarter cup of spinach.

Add your onions and peppers, according to your preference.

 Add some jalapenos. I did about four slices but you can do more or less. These can also be a tad on the spicy side so if you want something with less kick, try using sweet jalapenos instead of candied.

Add a dollop of sour cream and several strips of beef (any more than three narrow strips will cause some difficulty when wrapping the fajita).

Folding can be a little tricky. The easiest way I find to do is to move all the ingredients to one side of the tortilla then fold that end over, tuck in the corners and finish rolling.

And there you have it! I served ours up with a cup of strawberries each to get in our fruit. It makes for a quick, easy school night recipe that doesn't cost too terribly much in the calorie count. Enjoy y'all!

Beef Fajitas

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Total: 35 minutes

Ingredients: 

Hill Country Fare seasoned beef for fajitas, sliced
1/2 small yellow onion, sliced
1/2 medium red bell pepper, sliced
2 cups baby spinach
Texas Pepper Works candy-krisp jalapenos
4 tbs sour cream
8 flour tortillas

Instructions:
Brown the beef in a skillet over medium high heat for 15-20 minutes. Drain the juices and set aside. Microwave tortillas for 20 seconds. Place on working surface. Add spinach, onions, red peppers, jalapenos, and sour cream. Top off with beef and then roll the tortilla. Serve with fresh fruit.

Serves: 8 (one fajita each)
            4 (two fajitas each)

Calories: 290 per fajita

S'more Dipped Strawberries

So I was having one of those days. You know, the ones where you're craving certain things but nothing as a whole. Today, for me, it was strawberries, chocolate, and marshmallow fluff. Now, at first, I tried to resist since I'm trying to steer clear from treats as much as possible. But eventually I gave in. And this the result:

 

I know, they look amazing, right? So here's how you make them.

Ingredients:

20 Fresh Strawberries
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup marshmallow fluff

Directions:

Start by melting the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave them in thirty second increments, stirring each time. Do this 4 or 5 times, just until the chocolate is creamy. But be careful. If you heat them up for too long then they'll first become crumbly and then burn.

Put the marshmallow fluff in another bowl if you're like me (a medical major or have any experience in the food industry or just plain OCD, which is perfect okay because I am too) to avoid cross contamination in the original container. Or if you don't mind getting some strawberry juices in the container you can just leave it as is.


Wash your strawberries and drain them well. Then pat them dry with a paper towel. If you don't the fluff won't stick to them and you'll just end up plain old frustrated. Also check to make sure that they aren't over ripe. This will also prevent the fluff from sticking to them. Basically you want a strawberry that's nice and dry on the outside. Otherwise you're going to run into some problems.

Dip the strawberries first in the fluff and then in the chocolate. Then place them gently on a baking sheet. You can either let them air dry or put them in the freezer if you're impatient.

And I know, I really shouldn't eat these. But I've also heard that it's good to satisfy your cravings every once and while. So that makes it all right, doesn't it? So go on. Try one. I dare you. Do it. Do it. You know you want to. I'm so proud of you.

Out of Milk Muffins

I woke up this morning to find that we had no milk. Between my car breaking down and having to go downtown this weekend we didn't get a chance to do any grocery shopping. Normally, I would eat cereal every morning. But since we were out of milk I got creative and so I bring you this recipe.

 

Out of Milk Muffins

Yield: 2 servings

 

Ingredients:

 

2 English muffins, cut in half

2 Eggs

2 Slices of Colby Jack Cheese

2 Slices of Roast Beef Lunch Meat (or meat of your choice)

Honey Butter Spead

 

Start by frying your eggs. I like to do this by cracking them in the frying pan, adding just a little bit of water, covering them with a lid and letting them cook that way. But how you do it is totally up to you. While they're frying, toast your English muffins and butter them with the honey butter spread. When the eggs are finished, stack them on the muffins with the cheese. Then brown your lunch meat and stack it on top. Finish by topping it off with the other half of the muffin. And voila! Breakfast in a jiff!

 

Now for those of you working on a "New Year, new you" resolution, don't worry. One muffin is only 297 calories and is loaded with 17 grams of protein! The best way to start off your morning!



Turkey Comas

Are you still in a turkey coma? Did you watch all the football games? Are you dreading eating all those leftovers? Typical after Thanksgiving questions that get some very interesting answers, I'll give you that.

We (Julia and I; her and her husband Isaac came in from San Antonio for Thanksgiving) decided to make duck instead of turkey since there were only four of us eating dinner. Brendan and I, after searching the web to find out who sells duck in the city of Houston, got it from an Asian market called 99 Ranch. It was a very...interesting experience.

Anyway, we still had plenty of leftovers despite our efforts to cook small and even after sending Isaac and Julia home with half of the leftovers, Brendan and I are still overwhelmed with enough leftover food to feed a small army. So today I bring you a recipe that may help get rid of some of that leftover poultry. And no, it isn't a sandwich or a casserole.

 

Fruity Duck Salad

 

Okay so I'm not very good at naming things, but it'll make sense in a second.

 

 

Ingredients:

Cooked, shredded duck (or other leftover poultry)

1 Avocado, diced

6 strawberries, quartered

1/2 cup baby bella mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup blueberries

2 mandarin oranges

Spring leaf lettuce mix

 

1. Pile your plate with leafy goodness

 

2. Place mandarin orange slices around the edges of the plate

 

3. Place about a half an avocado in the center of your growing salad.

 

4. Place little piles of blueberries in three strategic locations where they won't roll off and also help your salad look fantastic.

 

5. Place strawberry slices in a smaller ring inside the orange barricade.

 

6. Sprinkle with mushrooms.

 

7. Top with shredded duck (or other assorted poultry).

 

8. Top with your favorite dressing and enjoy!

As you can so obviously tell, Brendan just loves green
leafy things

 Also, as a side note, as you can tell from the picture of Brendan, our Christmas tree has gone up!! I love Christmas and was hardly able to contain myself until the day AFTER Thanksgiving to put up our decorations. But I made it (just barely) and Friday morning, with the help of our Julia and our boys, we put up our very first Christmas tree as newlyweds. Yay us! Now to fill all that lonely space under the tree...and buy more ornaments! This thing is looking shabby!

First Christmas as newlyweds! I found this sweet little
ornament at the Nutcracker Market a while back.