Slightly Spicy Snoozy Saturday

It was so nice to be able to sleep in this morning! There wasn’t as much sleep to be had this past week but I’m finally feeling caught up and hopefully will no longer hit a wall at 3:00 p.m.

Last night we stayed in to watch basketball, which also means we opened a bottle of Malbec.

This is the Costco brand, a 2010 Kirkland Signature Mendoza Malbec ($9.00). We would gladly buy it again – smooth and fruity, it continued our trend of having never found a Malbec we don’t like (knock on wood). Ironically, I drank the Argentinian Malbec out of a Spanish wine glass.

For dinner, we had a familiar favorite: chicken fajitas!

I’m not sure if I’ve ever posted a specific recipe for these fajitas. Let’s change that.

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(Slightly) Spicy Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients (serves 2):

  • 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 2 chicken breasts, diced
  • 1 red pepper, sliced
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1/2 packet fajita seasoning (such as Lawry’s)
  • 2 whole-wheat flour tortillas
  • 1/4 cup shredded low-fat Mexican cheese
  • 1/2 cup organic spinach
  • Greek yogurt, to taste
  • Salsa, to taste

Directions:

Divide the olive oil between two medium-sized pans. In one pan, add the diced chicken and in the other, add the red peppers. In a third small pan, add the black beans. Turn the chicken on high heat, the red peppers on medium heat and the black beans on low heat to simmer.

While the ingredients are cooking, place the tortillas on two plates and divide the shredded cheese and spinach among them. Then return to the ingredients on the stove, stirring often. Once the chicken is no longer pink, add the 1/2 packet of fajita seasoning and mix until all the pieces are evenly coated. Cook the peppers until they are softened and slightly charred on the outsides. Cook the black beans until they begin to boil.

Once all ingredients are ready, add the chicken, peppers and black beans to the tortillas. You could also serve the black beans as a separate side dish. Cover the ingredients with as much Greek yogurt (a perfect sour cream substitute) and salsa as you wish! Enjoy!

Nutrition Information:

  • Calories: 497
  • Fat: 10g
  • Carbohydrates: 60g
  • Protein: 47g
  • Fiber: 12g

These nutrition facts change based on the type of tortilla you use (ours had 130 calories a pop). Alternatively you could use lettuce cups, corn tortillas or no tortilla at all. Whatever your personal preference, it makes for a yummy Friday night feast.

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The weather is pretty dreary around here today, so we will probably get in a lot of reading and writing. Which reminds me…we have a winner for the blogiversary giveaway! Thanks again to everyone who entered and left such sweet comments. Random.org selected #1 as the winner.

Congratulations to Laura!

I’m excited to send you a copy of The House I Loved (and am now curious to read it myself). Send me an email with your preferred mailing address to eatingbender@gmail.com.

Hope you all have something fun planned for the weekend!

Question: Do you meal plan? If so, any tips or strategies?

Believe it or not, this weekend will mark my first attempt at planning out a week’s worth of meals. I received several cookbooks recently that I’ve been wanting to put to good use, and have also been consulting the meal planner extraordinaire, Caroline. I’d love to hear if you have any additional ideas. I’m admittedly not so great when it comes to planning food in advance!

Abrazos,

14 Comments

  1. I started meal planning when I moved in with my boyfriend and wanted to eat things other than eggs and salads for dinner every night! I keep a binder of recipes and now use pinterest and I’ll figure out how many nights we’ll cook and come up with the meals I want to make first. Then I’ll use the recipes to make my shopping list, adding in anything else we need for breakfasts and lunches. Once you get into the habit, you’ll never go back 🙂

    • You sound exactly like where I’m at and where I’d like to be! Right now it really is eggs and salads for dinner, haha. It’s nice to know that you pick and choose how many nights you want to cook – I think part of the reason I’ve held off is that I thought it would be this pressure to do it every single night. I know, a lame excuse, since the pressure would all be self-inflicted! Can’t wait to get into the habit. 🙂

  2. I just made my meal plan for the week! I usually pick out 5 or 6 recipes on a Saturday or Sunday morning and get it over with. It really makes it easier to eat healthy. I have a binder full of recipes I’ve made before and love and also a file folder of recipes to try. It makes it super easy.

    • It’s sounding more and more like I need a recipe binder! Thanks for the great tip. Fortunately, buying new “organizational” supplies is one of my very favorite things. 🙂

  3. Fabulous dinner! I’m a huge meal planner. I book mark tons of recipes, so I usually use those as starting points. I will make the recipes first that call for ingredients we have on hand. Then I pick others that I really want to make, and make a food list from the recipes. And of course theres favorites and fall backs that make their way into my meal plan too

    • You are another major inspiration! Thank you for the wonderful tips. I aspire to be able to plan things out and make delicious meals like you – seriously!

  4. I had no idea Costco sold wine! I will definitely have to consider renewing our membership now…
    Thanks for the meal planning shout-out! Making a plan is the only way I can avoid a) standing in front of the fridge with no idea what to eat and b) eating the same thing every day!

    • Yes!! They sell a lot of different varieties, several of which are delicious AND only cost $7-9. It’s one of the main purchases we have there, if you can believe it. 😉 Thanks again for the meal planning inspiration!

    • Thank you, Michelle! I can’t wait to see your vegan-friendly version! 🙂

  5. Making a meal plan is a great idea. I have always wanted to do that, but when I do, we never stick to it. What I really need to do is cook several things on Sunday we can just reheat and eat for dinner through out the week.

    • That’s another thing I would LOVE to be able to do at some point. It’s just forcing myself to realize that by taking time on Sunday, I am saving time all week long. Baby steps, right?

    • Haha – that’s awesome!! I would love to fall asleep dreaming of meals while simultaneously being productive and getting my list made. Perfect. 🙂

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