¡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.

Fast-Food-At-Home: Quick Harissa Chicken w/ Fresh Cucumbers

Last night was one of those nights when I have no time to make dinner, but my family needs to be fed.  I mean, come on little humans, feed yourselves already!  Just kidding, they can but they would only eat protein bars, apples, popcorn and Halloween candy.  So, I can either grumble and complain and feed them all microwave ramen, Mac n cheese and protein smoothies, {You feel me?} OR, I can plan to keep a few essentials in my kitchen for a couple of go-to quick dinners.  Sometimes I do the first thing, but most of the time I grab my quick dinner ingredients and feed all five of us in thirty minutes.  SIDENOTE:  We spent an entire summer living apart while my husband took a new job three hours away from home so the kids and I subsisted on fast food while our house was showing. Why?  Y’all, I was so afraid of getting the kitchen dirty and then having a showing pop-up!  I’ve never felt more bleh in my life.  I felt gross.  After that summer I cut back tremendously on the drive thru, (even though I still find my way to In-N-Out occasionally).

Try this fresh fast-food-at-home recipe for Harissa Chicken w/ Fresh Cucumbers.  You can boil the chicken in salt water for twenty minutes or cook it on low all day in the crock pot.   It’s also great for an Instant Pot, but I’ve never used one.   Simply add two ingredients, garnish with cucumbers and dinner is served.

INGREDIENTS:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 bottle harissa sauce (mild) 

1 cup plain Greek yogurt  

Sliced fresh cucumbers

Cauliflowe Rice (optional) 

INSTRUCTIONS:

Boil the chicken in salt water, (or salt it and cook it on low in a crockpot)  

Once cooked thru, pull the chicken apart.  Pour in the Harissa sauce & yogurt and stir until well combined.  Cook cauliflower rice according to package and serve chicken atop a bed of cauliflower rice   Then garnish with fresh cucumbers.   Enjoy!

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!