Chicken Fajita Baked Potato with Guacamole and Sriracha Cream Sauce

We have fajitas for dinner pretty regularly, especially when I was pregnant and I was horrible about eating vegetables.  Sometimes I would just grill up one chicken breast for my husband and I would add some zucchini and squash to my dinner.  It is such a great way to get a large serving of vegetables and they taste great!  This meal is a great way to use up the leftovers.  I’ll often do a similar version of this with left over steak as well, making it a Philly Cheese Steak Baked Potato!  Yum!

Of course, you don’t have to use leftovers, you can make this all in one night, it just takes a little longer.  The directions below are how I made it last night.  I had my husband add some extra chicken to the grill on Sunday, so they were already cooked, just needed a little reheating.  I made fresh onions and peppers and a lazy guacamole.  I find it pointless to put all the effort into a fabulous guacamole when you’re going to cover it up with a strong flavored sauce such as this sriracha cream sauce.  I just take the avocado, mash it up with some salt and pepper and call it guacamole.  I would rather have the good stuff as a dip, but on this dish, you’d never miss all the goodies mixed in.

The sriracha cream sauce is what makes this dish!  It is DELICIOUS!  I may have had a spoonful or two to taste test.  Gotta make sure it’s well flavored!  Our family likes a lot of spice, but the recipe below is more of a medium spice.  If you like things hot, add an addition tablespoon or two of sriracha.  If you like a more mild heat,  start with one or two teaspoons of sriracha.

CHICKEN FAJITA BAKED POTATO WITH AVOCADO AND SRIRACHA CREAM SAUCE (serves 4)

4 russet potatoes

2 TBS olive oil, plus more for brushing

1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced

2 large green peppers, thickly sliced

2 chicken breasts, grilled and sliced

2 avocados, mashed with salt and pepper

1 cup shredded cheese of choice

1/2 cup light sour cream

1/3 cup light mayonnaise or greek yogurt

1 TBS sriracha

1/2 tsp red pepper flake

kosher salt

pepper

 

Preheat oven to 425.  Microwave your washed potatoes for 8 minutes.  Brush the potatoes with a light coat of olive oil.  This gives them a shiny crisp skin after baking.  Bake on the center rack for 20-25 minutes, until fork tender.

Mix sour cream, mayo or yogurt, sriracha, red pepper flake, and salt & pepper to taste in a small bowl.

Heat a large saute pan on medium high heat.  Add 2 TBS olive oil, onions, and peppers.  Flavor with salt and pepper.  Saute until peppers begin to soften and onions are golden, approximately 8-10 minutes.  Add chicken at very end, stirring into vegetables and allowing to reheat for a couple minutes.

Remove potatoes from the oven, slice open, and top with onions, peppers, and chicken.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup cheese.  Top with guacamole and sriracha cream sauce.

Motherhood

Thanks to these two, I am a mother. And being their mother has taught me more about life than I learned in all of college. It’s on the job training, and I make mistakes regularly, but my bosses are forgiving and they make sure I get it right eventually!

On my short drive to church on Mother’s Day morning, I couldn’t help but reflect on the connection to Jesus that motherhood has brought. The priest mentioned during mass, how mothers are the only people that will ever live the sacrifice of Jesus, truly understanding when he said “This is my body, this is my blood.” As a mother, you give yourself completely for your child, for nine months before their birth and for the rest of their lives. During pregnancy, your body is literally given up for them. Every breath you take, every bite you eat, every drink you sip, will affect their health. As a mother, you forgive the sins of your children, no matter how serious. You love unconditionally, sacrificing yourself to teach them, to help them grow and blossom. There is nothing on this Earth more powerful than the love of a mother.

As a mother, you sacrifice your body; your tight little stomach that once looked great in a bikini, and now hides beneath a loose fitting t-shirt protecting the world from seeing the stretch marks and loose skin from pregnancy. You sacrifice your sleep, waking every few hours to feed for the first months of life, comforting a crying toddler after a bad dream, and waiting for curfew to bring your newly independent teenager safely home (I’m not quite there yet, but I know it will come too quickly). You sacrifice your interests; the leisurely reading of novels is replaced with building blocks and Thomas the train. You sacrifice fashion, replacing designer jeans and silk blouses with yoga pants and t-shirts, high heels replaced with sneakers, if you manage to actually take your slippers off!

I’ll admit, sometimes I get overwhelmed with the sacrifices of motherhood, and I wish for a day of freedom from the responsibility, a day to put on the high heels, to actually use a blow dryer on my hair, to wear a shirt that doesn’t have spit-up stains on it, and to enjoy a quiet meal alone! I think a day like that is important for my mental health, but at the end of it, I don’t look back and laugh at the funny things my son said that day, or feel the butterflies in my chest from hearing the baby laughs of my daughter, and that makes me miss the sacrifices and look forward to tomorrow—-when I intend to stay in my pajamas until nap-time and I’ll be lucky to get a shower before bedtime!

At mass, the priest read this article from Erma Brombeck. I leave you to read it and then call your mothers and tell them how beautiful they are!

Mother Earned Her Wrinkles

She has iron-starved blood, one shoulder is lower than the other, and she bites her fingernails.

She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. She should be. She’s worked on that body and face for more than sixty years. The process for that kind of beauty cannot be rushed.

The wrinkles on her face have been earned…one at a time. The stubborn one around the lips that deepened with every “No!” The thin ones on the forehead that mysteriously appeared when the first child was born.

The eyes are protected by glass now, but you can still see the perma-circles around them. Young eyes are darting and fleeting. These are mature eyes that reflect a lifetime. Eyes that have glistened with pride, filled with tears of sorrow, snapped in anger and burned from loss of sleep. They are now direct and penetrating and look at you when you speak..

The bulges are classics. They developed slowly from babies too sleepy to walk who had to be carried home from Grandma’s, grocery bags lugged from the car, ashes carried out of the basement while her husband was at war. Now they are fed by a minimum of activity, a full refrigerator and television.

The extra chin is custom-grown and takes years to perfect. Sometimes you can only see it from the side, but it’s there. Pampered women don’t have an extra chin. They cream them away or pat the muscles until they become firm. But this chin has always been there, supporting a nodding head that has slept in a chair all night.

The legs are still shapely, but the step is slower. They ran too often for the bus, stood a little too long when she clerked in a department store, got beat up while teaching her daughter how to ride a two-wheeler. They’re purple at the back of the knees.

The hands? They’re small and veined and have been dunked, dipped, shook, patted, wrung, caught in doors, splintered, dyed, bitten and blistered, but you can’t help but be impressed when you see the ring finger that has shrunk from years of wearing the same wedding ring. It takes time – ands much more to diminish a finger.

I looked at Mother long and hard the other day and said, “Mom, I have never seen you look so beautiful!”

“I work at it,” she snapped.

Tomato, Corn, and Avocado Salad with Chipotle Honey Lime Vinaigrette

Summer is right around the corner and this makes me start craving fresh seasonal vegetables.  I LOVE avocado!  It is by far my favorite vegetable, or technically fruit that tastes like a vegetable.  I often find myself snacking on it as I cook, dipping it in some kosher salt.  Corn is also in season and I have a very hard time walking by it at the store without buying a few ears.

This is one of my favorite summer salads.  You can make it year round, but it is much cheaper and tastier in season!  I often add some black beans and bell peppers to the mix, and if my husband isn’t around, I’ll throw in some peas.  My mom makes a similar salad with cauliflower and radish.  Really you can throw in whatever you like, just leave out the lettuce.  Or throw it on top of a bed of lettuce, whatever floats your boat.

TOMATO, CORN, AVOCADO SALAD WITH CHIPOTLE HONEY LIME VINAIGRETTE

2 cups corn

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

2 avocados, cubed

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup Chipotle Honey Lime Vinaigrette

 

Vinaigrette

1/2 tsp lime zest

juice of 1 large lime

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, finely chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp honey

1 tsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp chili powder

 

Put all the vinaigrette ingredients in a bowl and whisk together, or in a jar and shake.

Put corn, tomatoes, red onion, and cilantro in a bowl.  Mix to combine.  Pour vinaigrette over vegetables and stir.  Refrigerate until ready to eat.  Add avocado just before serving.  This salad is best if it sits for an hour before adding the avocado and serving.

Monster Cookies

I’ve fallen off the wagon.  The sugar wagon that is.  As I’ve mentioned before, I gave up unrefined sugar for Lent.  Well, Lent is over, and so is the fast!

Have you heard the news about the toxicity of sugar?  Or this research that it is more addictive than cocaine?  I believe them both.  Oddly, I gave up sugar for the month of January as well, but the extra two weeks of Lent made a big difference.  When I had my first bite of sugar on February 1, I felt no different than on I did on January 31 with no sugar in my system.  However when I had sugar the first time after Lent, I felt horrible.  I felt nauseous, anxious, and got a horrible headache.  And then I wanted more, and I felt better, for an hour.  So, I believe the research that it is more addictive than cocaine.

And yet here I am posting a cookie recipe!  What can I say, I’m an addict!  And these cookies are my cocaine!

Have you had this trail mix from Target?

It may very well be cocaine packaged up and sold on the shelves at your local Target!  It’s M&Ms, peanuts, raisins, peanut butter chips, and chocolate chips.  I could eat the entire container in a day if I didn’t exercise any self-restraint.  So to keep my self from eating handful after handful, I decided to make Monster Cookies using the mix!  It was a good idea, except I still ate the whole container, wrapped up in my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough from Milk & Cookies.

MONSTER COOKIES (Makes about 3 dozen cookies)

2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 TBS vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups Monster Trail Mix

Preheat oven to 350.

Put oats in a food processor and process until finely ground.  Transfer to a large mixing bowl.  Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on low to soften.  Increase speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes, until light and creamy.  Gradually add the sugars, beating until light and creamy.  Add eggs, one at a time, scraping sides after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, until almost mixed.  When dough is still streaky with dry ingredients, stir in chocolate chips and trail mix with a spoon.

Drop cookies onto cookie sheet and bake for 10-13 minutes, until edges are barely turning golden.  The center will seem to be undercooked, but this is important to retain chewiness.  DO NOT OVERBAKE!!!  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Greek Salad

I LOVE Greek salad!  And lately I can’t get enough of it!  My husband will be out of town for the next four nights, and I am predicting Greek salad will be my dinner for at least 3 of those nights!  I used to make a Greek vinaigrette for this salad, but now I’m in love with this balsamic vinaigrette.  I never buy it from the store anymore.  This recipe is so easy to make and tastes so much better!

The dressing does have honey in it, so it will thicken up when refrigerated.  I recommend taking it out of the fridge 15 minutes before you’re going to put it on your salad.  Or you could just give it a good shake and use it as is, it still tastes great!

That napkin in the picture above, it used to be a shirt, my husband’s shirt!  A couple years ago, I decided he should never wear it (it was a henley with a banded collar!) so I turned it into napkins!  There was a bright blue hawaiian print shirt that met a similar fate!  We use them every night!  They get a lot more love now then they ever did in his closet, thank goodness!  Although based on this picture, they could still use a visit from an iron, but I’m just too lazy for that kind of effort!

 

GREEK SALAD

Lettuce (I like 50/50 spring mix and baby spinach)

Red onion, thinly sliced

Grape tomatoes, halved

Cucumber, sliced

Feta cheese

Sliced almonds

Kalamata olives, pitted

Balsamic vinaigrette (recipe below)

Arrange lettuce on a plate.  Top with remaining ingredients to taste.

 

BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE (adapted from Chinese Grandma)

2 tablespoon whole grain dijon mustard

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground pepper

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tablespoons honey

 

Put all ingredients in a 1 pint jar, adding honey last.  Shake vigorously until well combined.

Store in the fridge, just give it a shake before each use.

Breakfast Lasagna

I love breakfast casserole.  I also love mexican food.  So put the two together, and this is what you get!  It’s like Mexican Lasagna, with eggs!  It is so very yummy!  Of course, what’s not to love about eggs, sausage, peppers, and onions, stacked between layers of tortillas, black beans, cheese, and salsa!  It’s huevos rancheros all stacked up!

I used my spicy black bean recipe, but feel free to use canned if you don’t have fresh beans.  This would also be delicious with chorizo instead of traditional breakfast sausage.  Feel free to use corn tortillas, but my husband and I aren’t huge fans.

BREAKFAST LASAGNA (serves 6-8, if you can manage to not eat half the pan in one sitting!)

1/2 lb. breakfast sausage

12 large eggs

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium green pepper, chopped

12 small flour tortillas

2 cups black beans

2 jars salsa

2 cups cheddar cheese

salt

pepper

red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 400.

Cook sausage in skillet over medium heat.  Remove cooked sausage from the pan and drain off any grease.  Scramble eggs in same pan until just set.  Set eggs aside.  Add peppers and onions to the pan, seasoned with salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste.  Cook for 3 minutes then set aside.

Spray a 9×13 baking pan with cooking oil.  Pour 1/2 cup of salsa on bottom of pan and spread with a spatula.  Top with a layer of tortillas, then 1 cup black beans, half the eggs, half the sausage, half the onions, half the peppers and 1/3 of the cheese.  Add another layer of tortillas, then 1/2 cup salsa, and remaining beans, eggs, sausage, onions, and peppers.  Top with half the remaining cheese.  Finish with another layer of tortillas, a final layer of salsa, and the remaining cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until bubbly.

Spring Break and Photography Workshops

I know I’ve been absent from the blog world lately.  Life has been a bit crazy for the last couple weeks.  My husband teaches at West Point and we were on spring break.  We went to Texas to visit my family.

We mowed lawns!

We drove tractors!

Some of us relaxed a bit!

And pondered the beauty of nature!

We rode horses!

And golf carts!

It was a great time.  Eli was exhausted at the end of everyday!  Nothing like some fresh air and horse power to waste a little energy!

Sadly when we came home, we found one of our cats to be very sick.  Ginger was in kidney failure and had to be put down.  She was my cat from high school.  I had had her for 17 years.  When she was younger she would take pinwheel peppermints out of our candy dish, knock them to the ground then chase them back and forth on the wooden floors, crashing into walls, and having a blast for hours.  She would play baseball with balled up candy wrappers.  She would sit on any book, newspaper, or paperwork you tried to read!  She always knew when I was feeling sad, and would give me a little extra attention.  She would purr like a motor just to the sound of her name being called!  She was well loved!

For more cheerful news, I’m taking an online photography workshop through Clickin Moms.  It is Shooting 101, and it is amazing!  I had been using manual a little before the class, but usually shot in Aperture Priority.  I have learned so much from the class that I’ve decided to take a study along to Shooting 201.

So far in the class we’ve covered metering, back button focus, white balance, including custom white balance, and so much more.  Below are some of my submissions for the lessons so far!  I know they aren’t great, but they’re getting better!

This was my submission for finding the “sweet spot” meter reading, or proper exposure for Adelaide.  Who knew that everyone would expose differently for your camera!

This is my pic for catch lights in my daughters eyes.

This week we were supposed to show motion by altering our shutter speed. I had a hard time capturing this.  But below was one attempt.  I’m going to keep working on this.

And this one is just for fun!

If you are looking to deepen your photography skills, whether it’s basic shooting skills or processing, they have tons of workshops to chose from.  I’m learning tons.  I highly recommend them!

Chicken Riggies

I had never heard of chicken riggies until I met my husband.  Apparently they are a regional dish in central and upstate New York.  It’s a pretty simple dish of chicken and rigatoni in a tomato cream sauce.  But what makes these amazing are the cherry peppers.  It gives the sauce a good kick.  The amount of spice, unfortunately is all determined by the peppers, and it’s always hit or miss if you get a hot jar or not.  A little extra red pepper flake is an easy fix for a mild jar though.

This would be delicious with fresh basil, but as I’ve said before, we live in a small town and the pickings are slim at our store.  So I used dried basil.  If you are lucky enough to have quality fresh basil, you’ll want to add quite a bit more then the 1 TBS I call for here.

My store only had whole cherry peppers, so I cut the stems off, leaving some of the seeds inside and pulsed them a few times in the food processor.  In the end, I wished I had left all the seeds in for more heat.  I’ve found that pre-sliced peppers have more heat than whole peppers, because the seeds are exposed.

This recipe is adapted from one by my beautiful sister-in-law.  Thanks for sharing Monica!

CHICKEN RIGGIES

4 TBS Olive Oil, divided
3 or 4 large chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 large jar sliced hot cherry peppers (This may be more than is needed, depending on the heat of your peppers, taste them first and adjust as necessary.)
29 oz jar tomato puree
1 TBS dried basil
1-1 1/2 cups half and half
1 lb rigatoni
salt
pepper
red pepper flakes

Heat 2 TBS olive oil in large saute pan.  Add chicken and season with salt and pepper.  Cook chicken until no longer pink then using slotted spoon, remove chicken from pan.

Add remaining 2 TBS oil to pan.  Saute cherry peppers for 3 minutes, then add garlic and saute for a minute longer.  Add tomato puree to peppers and garlic.  Season with basil, salt, and pepper.  Allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile put water on to boil for rigatoni. Cook rigatoni to al dente.

As pasta finishes cooking, add half and half to sauce, while stirring, until desired consistency and color.

Taste for seasoning and bring back to a simmer.  Add pasta to sauce pan and serve!

Scratch Bars: No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars

My son, who has been sick for the last week and hasn’t eaten solid food for a good 5 days, devoured one of these bars yesterday.  He passed on ice cream for dinner last night (I only offered as a last resort to get some calories in the man, I promise it’s not a normal menu item!) but he loved these granola bars.  When I asked him if he wanted a granola bar, he headed toward the pantry, but I redirected him to the kitchen, telling him Mommy made them from scratch.  He then walked around the dining room eating his bar and calling it “Scratch!”  Hence the name Scratch Bars!

As I’ve mentioned, I gave up refined sugar for Lent.  The hardest part of this is right after a meal, when I crave a little something sweet.  So today I whipped up these granola bars to nibble on after dinner.  They are sweetened with honey, which I would prefer to be raw honey, but we live in a small town, so my selection is limited.  This combination of peanut butter and honey is so delicious.  It brings me back to childhood when my mom would make me peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

SCRATCH BARS

1/4 cup coconut oil or butter
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup natural peanut butter
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup brown rice crisp cereal
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, or dried fruit

Combine oats, brown rice cereal, and chocolate chips, raisins, or nuts in a large bowl.

Melt coconut oil or butter over medium heat, add honey and peanut butter and stir until peanut butter is melted.  Remove from heat and add vanilla, stirring to combine.

Pour peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients.  Stir until oats and cereal are coated.

Pour mixture into a 9 x9 pan and press down firmly.  Place in the freezer for 30 minutes to set.  Cut into bars and wrap individually or layer between sheets of wax paper.

These bars hold together best when stored in the refrigerator.

Spicy Black Beans with Cheddar Grit Cakes

My husband is from Syracuse, New York.  Dinosaur BBQ is a famous restaurant in downtown Syracuse.  Now, I’m a Texas girl, so I have high expectations when it comes to BBQ, and Dinosaur does a great job, especially considering their location north of the Mason-Dixon!  Although it’s not BBQ, this recipe comes from their cookbook.

My husband is out of town right now, so I’ve been eating things he wouldn’t really enjoy.  I’ve had these black beans three days in a row now!  They are so versatile.  Have them in a taco, like I did last night!  Throw them in your eggs with some spinach for a healthy start to your day!  Throw over some rice and you have a different take on rice and beans, which is actually where this combination came from.  I wanted something a little more flavorful than rice, and I love grits.  My husband isn’t such a fan, so I make them when he’s away.

You can enjoy these beans over the basic grits, before you bake them into cakes.  But I like the texture change when you bake them up and toast them under the broiler.  Plus, this helps with portion control, because I could eat the whole pot of the creamy grits.

SPICY BLACK BEANS WITH CHEDDAR GRIT CAKES (serves 6)

SPICY BLACK BEANS

To Start:
2 cups dry black beans
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
4 cups water
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 TBS olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Sofrito:
2 TBS olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 jalepeno, chopped (leave the seeds in if you want some extra heat)
3 cloves garlic chopped
pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper

To Finish:
2 tsp ground cumin
1 TBS dried oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
1 TBS maple syrup
4 tsp red wine vinegar

To Start:
Sort through the beans and remove any little stones or shriveled beans.  Rinse them well and toss into a large pot.  Add 2 cups of stock, the onions, peppers, garlic, bay leaf, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, then cover the pot, leaving the lid cracked.  Simmer for 2-2 1/2 hours, adding the remaining stock and water a cup at a time as the liquids are absorbed by the beans.  When they are done, the beans will be soft and will have a creamy black gravy.

Sofrito:
Heat oil over medium heat.  Add onions, pepper, jalepeno, salt, and pepper.  Saute until soft, then add garlic and saute for a minute longer.

Add Sofrito to cooked beans.  Toss in finishing ingredients: cumin, oregano, salt, maple syrup, and red wine vinegar.

GRIT CAKES
1/4 butter divided
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 jalepeno minced (leave the seeds in for extra heat)
2 tsp kosher salt, plus a pinch
1 tsp black pepper, plus a pinch
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups whole milk
1 cup quick grits
1 cut shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated parmessan

Melt half the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add onions, peppers, and jalepeno.   Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Cook until soft, then add garlic and cook for a minute longer.

Pour in milk, cover, and bring to a gentle boil, being careful not to scald.  Lower the heat to medium-low and slowly stir in grits.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

Remove pan from the heat and cheeses salt and pepper.  Stir until cheeses are melted.  Add butter and stir until melted.

Serve immediately if you want creamy grits.

For grit cakes, pour grits into 9×13 pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  Allow to cool completely, then cut into 12 bars.  These will keep in the fridge for a few days.  When ready to serve, allow to come to room temperature, then broil until light brown and crispy.

Top broiled grit cakes with black beans, then garnish as desired.  I like them with a little extra cheese, tomato, and avocado.