¡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.

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!