I used to cook a lot of Tex-Mex meals. Anything with sour cream and cheese. Maybe it was a reaction to my time in VS when we only had those items when they were on sale, and then only sparingly. Maybe it was because we had a great cook there who grew up in Mexico and shared her delicious enchilada sauce recipe with us.

Maybe I just plain long liked this type of food. I certainly did not grow up eating this kind of food, although we always ate well. I’d say it was more the down-home country cooking.

Anyway, I’ve been on a Italian kick for the last year or three and the other day I felt inspired to make fajitas. I had everything on hand and I was amazed again at how little time it takes to make a meal like this.

Slice the chicken breasts into small pieces. I should’ve cut these finer because after it was cooked I had to do that. This is 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It is in one of those homely melmac bowls that we have on hand because it doesn’t matter if it gets broken when kids use it. Matter of fact, they probably can’t break it. Plus it is easier for them to scoop food up, since it has a nice bowl shape. But this is supposed to be about fajitas, not homely melmac bowls.

I minced 2 cloves of garlic, sprinkled kosher salt, seasoned salt, chili powder & lime powder. My sister got some lime powder in Thailand. It tastes just like the lime in the koolaid packs. It is handy to use instead of lime juice.

While meat is marinating, slice a pepper and onion

into bite-sized pieces.

This is also a great way to stretch your meat.

Wash and chop some fresh cilantro.

Get the peppers and onions cooking in a skillet over medium heat. Since the veggies haven’t been marinating, sprinkle them with salt, seasoned salt and chili powder. I only used about 1 T. olive oil. The veggies will draw their own juice.

When they were about 1/2 finished cooking, I added 1/2 a nice ripe tomato that I had, chopping it into 1/2 inch chunks.

The tomatoes will kind of disintegrate into mush but I loved the extra flavor they added.

After they’ve cooked for another 5 minutes or so, remove the veggies and place in a bowl to keep warm.

Throw the chicken in the skillet and cook just ’til meat is white all the way thru. Overcooking white meat is the best way to ruin it!

Toss with the veggies and start to build your fajita.

I like to spread sour cream right on the tortilla. And speaking of tortillas, everytime I have homemade ones, I declare I will never buy them again. But, I must admit it is much more convenient to just buy them. And I buy them most of the time.

Spread a small amount of fajita mixture on tortilla. And PLEASE do not over fill them! It just makes no sense to eat them with a fork. They are supposed to be eaten out of the hand!!

Sprinkle some fresh cilantro over it and seal it up. I didn’t have any fresh or canned salsa to add to this but quite honestly, I didn’t think it needed it. I personally do not care for bought salsa. There is one brand (Herdez) that I buy the Salsa Casera and add cilantro to that I like pretty good. And deep in the recesses of my xanga archives is a recipe I use to make “restaurant salsa.” That is what I most often make.

I made some guacamole, using the verbal recipe that Linda gave me, as best as I could remember. And it was good. I usually used mayo in the gaucamole and just did not like how it tasted. But for some reason I thought that’s how it was supposed to be.

And I had some leftover beans I pulled out of the freezer. Linda, these were some you cooked for me for the rice and beans meal for CB.

There you have it. Simple and easy. It really needed rice to go with it, but we are out of rice right now.

Happy cooking!