¡Arriba, Arriba! Chicken Burrito Bowls

This meal is one you pull outta yo’ back pocket and fix really quickly on a day when you have no time to plan ahead. {That’s today for me.} It takes minimal effort and minimal ingredients, yet it is still delicious and sure to please even the pickiest. The best part? You can make it all your own depending on what staple ingredients you have in your kitchen right now, so it becomes a new burrito bowl each time you make it! Magic!

INGREDIENTS

Cooked Chicken (we actually “fried” ours at home in our infrared fryer-NO oil. Ask me about it, because it is awesome and I have an Amazon code for ya below.)

Steamed Rice (or cauliflower)

Frozen Fajita Veggies

Kosher Salt

Ground Black Pepper

Sweetener (sugar or swerve)

Shredded cheese

Avocado

COOKING AND PLATING:

Cook and shred the chicken (again, so many different ways to make this dish so you can use chicken breasts, thighs, the whole bird, or you can really go hog wild and use ground turkey, beef, pork, fish even!)

Steam the rice. (I buy the easy cauliflower and brown rice that steam in the microwave.)

Cook veggies on stovetop in skillet until they wilt, sprinkle with salt, pepper and sweetener to taste. TIP: I like to cook my fajita veggies until the edges start to brown bc I like the flavor.

To assemble the bowls I place rice in the bottom of the bowl, add cheese, chicken, veggies, more cheese and garnish with your favorite Tex-Mex toppings…today I sliced a fresh avocado and sprinkled with pink Himalayan sea salt, but you could use cilantro, salsa, queso, corn, beans…chips…the list is endless.

I am telling y’all, my husband thought I was the Smokin’ Hot Witch of the South in the kitchen when I walked out with this bowl of delicious goodness for lunch today, I’m pretty sure he’d have eaten chicken from the container and called it lunch. I gotta admit it felt really good to see the surprise and happiness in his eyes when I brought him his chicken burrito bowl for lunch today. I hope you each enjoy it that much too! Please come back and leave me a comment or head to my social media and tag me in your posts. @wannabejenna on Insta, Twitter, Snapchat and FB.

Tex-Mex Turkey Skillet

This is one of our family favorites AND approved by all three kiddos, so it is on a regular rotation in my kitchen.  Go ahead and at it to next week's meal plan. The awesome factor in this recipe is definitely all the different ways it can be served!   Tacos, lettuce wraps, nachos, on a bed of greens...it's pretty versatile.  Please leave me a comment and let me know how you liked it and be sure to follow @wannabejenna on social media sites!  {As always, please give credit where credit is due if you use this recipe for business and/or share it with friends and tell them it is a Wannabejenna recipe. Thanks!}

INGREDIENTS: 

2 pounds lean ground turkey

2 packets low sodium taco seasoning

2 cans mild rotel

2 cans no salt added black beans (drain and rinse)

1 bag frozen fajita veggies (onion and bell peppers) 

Brown the meat in a dutch oven.  Add all ingredients and stir until well combined.  Simmer on low for 30 minutes.  Top with grated cheese, avocado, pico de gallo, a dollop of plain Greek yogurt, whatever you fancy and enjoy around your table with good friends and family.  Food = Love

Flank Steak + Sweet Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts

Howdy y'all!  I found a new recipe on Cooking Light, tweaked it a little and added it to my meal plan for the week.  Guess what!   This recipe only contains FIVE ingredients {not including salt, pepper and evoo}! Easy and tasty.  I am extremely pleased to report that it is a winner around the dinner table tonight!  I am always looking for new dinner recipes, because it is incredibly easy for me to slip into the habit of cooking the same dadgum meals week after week.  As moms, we figure out exactly what our kids will eat and we likely fall into the habit of making the same meals again and again.  So here it is; my gift to you, a new recipe to add to the rotation!

Okay, let's get to the juicy details of this post...the steak and veggies!  This meal was super easy to prepare considering all the veggies and herbs are fresh which means they must be prepped.  I sent the kids outside to play, turned on my favorite playlist and poured myself a glass of red wine. Perfection.  I am also a #wannabefoodie, in case you didn't know, which makes this dish all the more exciting for me.  I love the challenge of broiling a steak to medium rare perfection and working with a vegetable as ignored in home kitchens as the Brussels sprout.  My mother has loathed those green bitter balls since she was a wee-one eating dinner with her family of seven.  She had to eat them then; therefore, she does not eat them now.   LOL.  I may have to make this dinner for her the next time she visits and convert her to a faithful Brussels Sprout consumer.  I hope that y'all will add this to your meal plan this week and send your friends and family back here for the recipe.  Remember to be considerate and give credit where credit is due if you share the recipe. You are always welcome to share my post and follow me on social media.  {FB, Twitter, Intsagram, SnapChat}

INGREDIENTS:

2 lb flank Steak 

2 cloves chopped fresh garlic 

2 tsp fresh thyme

16 ounces Brussels sprouts, cleaned, split and trimmed

3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in thin half moons

Kosher Salt

Fresh ground black peppercorns

EVOO

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to broil.

Add the Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes to a large mixing bowl.  Coat with 1 TBSP EVOO,  light dusting of kosher salt and fresh ground black peppercorns, and garlic.  Toss until well coated.  Spread veggies out in even layer across baking sheet with a raised edge.  Place a wire rack over veggies (I used a short cookie cooling rack).  Rub both sides of steak down with 2 tsp EVOO.  Sprinkle lightly with salt, pepper and 1/2 of thyme.

Place in oven and broil for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven, flip steak, and sprinkle other side with salt, pepper and the remaining half of thyme.  Broil another 5-10 minutes depending upon how you prefer your steak cooked.  Remove from oven and allow steak to rest for five minutes before you slice it.  I placed the veggies back into the oven to broil another five minutes while I waited on the steak to rest, because I wanted the veggies to have a little more char on the edges.  Char = Yum.

Slice up the steak into servings the size of your palm and place as many veggies on the plate as you can fit.  Come back here and let me know when you make this meal your own.  Thanks y'all!

Ohhh Fuuuuudge!!! Recipe: TWO Ingredient Fudge

After years of loyal allegiance to marshmallow cream Fudge and my candy thermometer I decided to give this recipe a whirl.  Let's just say my candy thermometer is collecting dust as I type this and soon yours will be as well.  If you make it this Christmas season please come here and comment.  I want to hear your reviews!

#merrychristmasyall

Recipe: Easy-Peasy Turkey & Vegetable Soup

We finally moved into a new house, that's another blog post...an entire series really, and I went to the grocery yesterday to shop for a full week's worth of food for the first time in nearly two months.  In honor of the cold-front that blew threw Central Texas yesterday I decided to be completely cliche and make a large pot of soup: Easy-Peasy Turkey & Vegetable Soup.  My kids love it, as in ask for seconds, and the ingredients are healthy, cheap and easy to keep on hand for a quick meal on those nights when you want to pull your hair out and drink a glass of wine for dinner.  So let's just dive in and get this dish cookin'

Ingredients:

2 lb lean ground turkey

2 bags mixed frozen veggies

1 packet dry onion soup mix

3 cubes beef bouillon

Package of egg noodles

6 cups water

Garlic Powder & Black Pepper to taste

Brown the meat in the bottom of a large dutch oven or soup pot.  Season meat with soup mix, garlic powder and black pepper.  Add frozen mixed veggies, 6 cups water and three bouillon cubes, stir and cook until boiling.   Reduce heat to a simmer, add egg noodles and cook until noodles are done.  Serve it up, gather round the table and enjoy with people you love!

Food Truck Friday in Houston

I have a love affair with gourmet food trucks and my hometown of Houston has some of the best. You can find a world of culture in this melting pot of a city and our food trucks represent cuisine from across the globe. They are pretty much the equivalent of a cheap plane ticket to the country of your choice sitting on the curb of Washington Avenue.  My favorite is when I make a trip to Japan and I'll be telling you about that culinary cruiseine (see what i did there) in this post. 

Every so often I get the chance to jump in the SUV with my mom friends and our entourage of 101 children as we caravan into Houston for lunch on the sidewalk, lots of parenting, "GET OFF THAT STATUE!!!  IT'S A PIECE OF ART!!!", "YOU CAN'T TAKE MONEY OUT OF THE FOUNTAIN!!!", plenty of laughs and a few cuss-words spoken under our breath followed by prayers for forgiveness and help.  Today let's chat about a recent trip we took to the museum district of Houston on a gorgeous Friday and the two trucks we attacked with our small army of minions...I mean visited with our kids.

{I've included hyperlinks to the trucks for you...just CLICK on the truck name}

MONSTER PB&J:  

Y'all.  I love PB&J.  It is the sole reason I gained 52 pounds in my first pregnancy, because I suffered from insomnia and I would get up at all hours of the night, waddle to the kitchen, get out the loaf of whole wheat bread and indulge my craving every single night of my second and third trimester.  Probably explains why that baby is now nearly a decade old and STILL hates anything with peanut butter on it. (so sad, she's really missing out).  Let's get back on track....Monster PB&J is a crazy awesome food truck in #HTX that begs you to build your own custom PB&J.  You pick the fresh made bread (they offer gluten free!), fresh ground nut-butter, local jam, and fresh fruit filling.  It's awesome.  Get as crazy as you want...one kid actually ordered hers with fresh blueberries and pickles, or keep it old school with peanut butter and grape jelly on white bread.  We ordered traditional sandwiches for my sons but my daughter opted for nutella and banana.  In terms of sides you choose from a tasty selection of chips and to wash it all down we each had a Mexican Coca-Cola (still made with cane sugar like the original recipe).  They really did take their shoes off and get in this fountain, some grabbing the change at the bottom....the kids, not the moms.

Now that the kids were fed we found my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE food truck {thank you Twitter} in Houston one block away and next to a nice outdoor art exhibit with plenty of tables and chairs.  The kids however didn't seem to notice; they climbed every tree they could find and attempted to climb on the art installations UNTIL the security guard spied them and they got a good holler and finger-wagging.  (As they should.)  Back to my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE food truck in Houston:

MUIISHI MAKIRRITOS:

This truck describes itself as "Japanese food with a twist" and it proudly serves to the patrons of Houston's urban streets; it is one worth chasing...in wedges...and a skirt...several blocks if you have to do it.  I always recommend folks to order the Kimchi Fries (which I do not see on their menu right now), Mac & Cheese Eggrolls (definitely a fusion dish) and the best of all...Pork Belly Don Juan bowl which is {drumroll} sous vide pork belly, 62 degree egg, fried shittake and oyster mushrooms, pickled cucumber, takuan and kim chi over sticky rice.  I'm getting hunger pangs just typing about it!  Every time I go to the truck the food is consistently mouth-watering and pleasing.  So delicious.

Both of these trucks are super active on social media and you can find them on a litany of apps including Facebook and Twitter.  I use both apps to locate the trucks because they always post to their constituents where they will be parked for lunch or dinner service.  Be sure and let them know that @wannabejenna sent you...maybe I'll get some free kimchi fries next visit!  

Underbelly - Above & Beyond

Wedding anniversaries are a big deal in our house.  We celebrate each one with pride and humility because we know that many marriages don't make it to this awesome annual milestone; and our preferred way to celebrate is around a table filled with good food and good wine.

This year we celebrated #11yearsmarried and #16yearsdating (yep, I used it again.  It's worth #hasghtagging) at a highly acclaimed and relatively young HTX restaurant called Underbelly.  The Executive Chef, Chris Shepherd, is the first Houston chef to win the James Beard Award-Best Chef Southwest 2014 (the culinary world's version of an Oscar) and an obscene amount of press has been written about how A-MAZing the restaurant is so we were thrilled to finally be able to go.  {I've tried for two years to get a reservation, but have never been able to get one on short notice which is how parents of three young hooligans usually fly, but this time I made my reservation a week in advance.}  Chris has created Underbelly to tell the story of Houston food and when you look over the menu you will see how this melting pot of a city is represented in each dish he creates.  The food and drink did not disappoint and the service far exceeded anything we expected.

"It was a clear black night, a clear white moon

Warren G was on streets, trying to consume..."

{....Oh, wait, sorry, I got distracted by the hip-hop in my head.}  It WAS a clear dark night and we got a room at the Houston Omni on Woodway.  Mr. GQ had purchased the romance package through the hotel and so our room was adorned with sweet little embellishments to make the occasion extra special and we began the night by toasting to our love and covenant marriage over glasses of champagne.  Perfection.  Mr. GQ looked handsome as ever and I was the sweet candy on his arm.  You know, one of those nights when everything comes together and your makeup, hair and outfit all come together for the perfect crime, "I'm too hot!  Call the po-lice and the fireman!"  {ohmygravy, the hip hop won't stop!}.

#Uberblack picked us up and delivered us to Underbelly where we presented our reservation and made our way to their quaint bar for drinks as we waited on a table to clear.  The bar @Underbelly is small, but better described as inviting.  It's one of those rooms you peek into and immediately you are drawn into the space because you want to spend time wrapped up in it.  Lots of metal, concrete and wood accents; we sat at one end of the big family style table in the center of the bar.  The menus are wrapped in leather and packed FULL of DELICIOUS drink options.  Mr. GQ ordered a belgian beer and I ordered the Polar Berry...a.k.a. "the most delicious pre-dinner drink I have ever had".  It was light, refreshing and made me want to sit on the banks of a river anywhere watching the sunset over the trees while holding hands with my husband and dreaming of the future.  Seriously, that good.  I felt beautiful and loved and excited about our time together.  We cuddled on our barstools, ignored the world around us and chatted like we were newly dating.

The hostess approached to tell us our table was ready and led us into the dining room.  There is one dining room and it is open concept, as well as open to the kitchen, so it was noisier than I expected; however EVERYONE in the room was thrilled to be there and truly enJOYing their evening with friends and family which made the noise electric and not overwhelming, a good noise.  Plates are constantly being sent out from the kitchen at a steady pace and so your are engulfed in tantalizing clouds of fresh bread, cured meats, asian noodles...it is everything a restaurant obsessed with food should be.

Our server.  I still remember his name and will probably never forget it; Shaun.  Hands down, no competition, give the guy a raise...BEST.  SERVER.  EVER.  Not only was he attentive, personable and genuinely nice, but he gave an excellent wine recommendation and we've been dreaming about that bottle ever since.  Shaun suggested we order 3-5 dishes from the menu because everything was served family style and not to worry about the order of the delivery from the kitchen, because he would take care of that for us.  We ordered the following items:

1. Warm Pain De Campagne, Red Wine  & Apple Butter
2. Pork Belly, Spicy Slaw, Fried New Potatoes
3. Tamales a la Xavi, Zucchini  Pico, Salsa
4. Korean Braised Goat & Dumplings {SPICY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED}
5. Shrimp, Charred Acorn Squash, Hot Pot Curry, Rice Noodles, Herbs

{I'm getting dizzy with delight just typing out the items we chose and staring at their menu thinking of the items I didn't get to try that night.  We must go back soon.  "Dear Suri, please take note, we must go back to Underbelly soon."  "Got it."  Thanks Suri.}  Let's begin with our favorites...the bread {Warm Pain De Campagne, Red Wine & Apple Butter}.  This is what I picture at the banquet table in heaven when all the followers of Christ gather together break bread with God the father and God the Son.  I mean this bread was heavenly.  The crust was thick and made that delightful  "CRRRUUUNCH" noise when you pressed your knife or thumbs into it and then the inside was a steamy cavern full of light yet filling webs of delicious bread.  Bread.  What is it about bread?  Is it the link it provides us to the last supper?  There is just something so comforting about a good loaf of homemade bread.  "Do this in remembrance of me."

Our second favorite was the Pork Belly.  I LERRRRVE when my pork belly is seared with a crust on the outside and then you bite into rich, juicy, pork beneath, but what made this plate perfection was when you ate a bite of pork WITH a bite of spicy slaw.  I'm seriously, salivating over pork belly at 8:24 a.m.

The tamales were good, but the zucchini pico was incredible and the perfect date for those full-figured tamales.  

The goat...oh the goat.  We have come to the one thing I would have changed with the order our food arrived to the table.  This Korean braised goat had some serious bite and the dumplings were necessary to calm your mouth after each taste of the meat.  They were rich and delicious, but I am not well versed enough in Korean cooking to know what made the goat so spicy.  I do love a good spicy dish, but it blew out my taste buds so that it was too impossible for me to taste and enjoy the Shrimp and Rice Noodle Bowl that was served last.   I wish I had eaten the Shrimp and Rice Noodles and finished with the goat.  But regardless...

Divine.  The entire meal was divine.

We were so full from our five shared plates we didn't even look at the dessert menu.  Sad, I know.  Despicable really, but I plan to order three plates next time so that I can indulge in dessert and enjoy a delicious cup of coffee at the end of our meal.  Underbelly quickly earned it's spot at the top of my husband's favorite places to eat and I am certain you will feel the same way, so make your reservation today, because you will need a reservation to get a table.  Gather round, order a drink, pass the plates and enjoy your time around the table at Underbelly.