So I was thinking about what to write about for, what I guess you could say, would be my first official blog post and I thought why not start with a simple recipe - Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas. Normally I don't cook or cook something that requires a lot of steps when Wes is at work. For one, the meal is always too much food for just me to eat and two, it's just so much easier to just heat something up. But since we are nearing the end of baseball season and the Indians are in town, we are spending almost every night Wes isn't at the station at the ballpark. So when I was planning out the meal for the week in my head I forgot about the baseball park and went ahead and bought fresh veggies for fajitas and worried that they will go bad before Wednesday (the first night that Wes isn't working and we don't have tickets) so I went ahead and made it tonight. On the good side, there will be enough leftovers for lunch for awhile.
Throughout the day I thought about this post and what recipes that I would like to put on here and the thought came to me. Since James has been born, 12 weeks on Monday, we have only had dinner out a handful of times which I found very strange. Having James and being his primary caregiver, waking up multi times during the night and being on a repetitive schedule of about 2 to 3 hrs, I've never cook so many dinner at home. Before James, I cooked at home a lot but like I mentioned above, when Wes is at work, I won't cook dinner, I would just grab something but now, it's just so much easier to heat something up or cook something than to put a baby, who hates the carseat, in the car just for a burger. The meals that I do find myself cooking aren't near as fancy as they used to be or ever had as many sides, most of the time, but I think after years of cooking you realize that you don't really need all those.
So now onto the main event, my semi-homemade Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas. And what I mean by semi-homemade and thats how I like to refer to my cooking as, you take a recipe and use a shortcut from the store, such as fajitas seasoning, or take a box mix and make it your own by adding something special to the recipe.
This recipes is super easy. I prepared most of it while James was taking his afternoon nap (after I pulled myself from the couch) and cooked it after he went to sleep.
I used:
3 medium to large frozen chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 red bell peppers, cut into strips
2 green bell peppers, cut into strips
1 large white onion, cut into strips
1 packet of fajita seasoning
8 to 10 fajita flour shells (the small ones)
sour cream (optional)
The first thing I did was thaw out the chicken breasts. I like to use the frozen kind from Sam's. Recently I've been buying the big 10 pound bag. I'm a big fan of the frozen chicken from Sam's. Not only do I feel like the chicken breasts are better, the "fresh" kind from the stores just scare me, they are usually really big and sometimes still frozen in the center. And you can't beat the price on the chicken either, I think I got the whole bag for about $20. I know a 4 pound bag will cost me $11 at my local grocery store.
While the chicken was thawing, I cut up the peppers and onions. I just cut off the sides of the peppers and cut them that way so I don't really have to deal with the white stuff inside. I cut them into stripes and put them in a Tupperware container for later and the same with the onion.
After putting James down to sleep for the first time (yes, it was a multipultl put down night) I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. I bought the chicken out of the fridge, along with the peppers and onions, and cut it into strips. I like to half the chicken strips so they are more of a bite size pieces and not long 5 inch strips. I also feel like by doing this it helps them cook longer.
After cutting the chicken up, I placed it, with the peppers and onion, into a large bowl and mixed it with the fajita seasoning.
Before seasoning After seasoning
I put the mixture into a 8 x 11 cake pan that was lined with foil and coated with cooking spray.
Then, I placed the pan into the oven for about 30 minutes until the chicken was cooked through and the peppers were soft. I stirred the mixture a couple of times to make sure everything was coated well and cooking evenly.
While the fajitas were cooking, I placed two tortillas ( I know I said 8 to 10 up there but I am only cooking them for myself) in foil then in the oven. I put them in too early and one got a little extra toasty, so preheat with caution.
A couple of minutes before I pulled the fajitas out, I opened a can of corn and cooked it in the microwave for 3 minutes. Like I said, this recipes is semi-homemade and very easy.
Here are the fajitas fully cooked. They look and smell so good!
I used the foil that I wrapped the tortillas up as a placemat to make the fajitas. I like to add the sour cream first to the tortillas so I can get it spread nice and even on the tortillas. I do the same thing with tacos too.
Here is the finished project with the corn on the side.
I've made this recipe using the stovetop and cooking the chicken, peppers and onion in a skillet but I like doing it this way because it allows me to do something else while the food is cooking. Sometimes, it's clean up the kitchen so I don't have to do it later, other times it's just hanging out with Wes. Tonight it was giving Truman a bath. He most of got into something in the yard and he smelled pretty bad. I've noticed that since James has come into our lives, Truman has missed out on a couple of things. So long are his quiet afternoon naps and regular trips to agility but I don't think me postponing his baths are something that really upsets him too much.
What favorite recipes do you have that you can cook them two different ways? Are you more of a simple cook, a main item and one side, or do you like to put a full meal together, a main item with many sides?
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!
Full Recipe
3 medium to large frozen chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 red bell peppers, cut into strips
2 green bell peppers, cut into strips
1 large white onion, cut into strips
1 packet of fajita seasoning
8 to 10 fajita flour shells (the small ones)
sour cream (optional)Place chicken, peppers, onions and seasoning into a bowl together and mix throughly. Place in a foiled and lightly sprayed baking dish. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and peppers are soft. Serve on warmed tortillas.
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