Arrrrrriba fajitas

I do like North Carolina, although I am not a huge fan of Fayetteville. I like how close the beach is, I like the weather and I love that it snows here.

What I don't like is that there is nowhere to get freaking Mexican food. Arizona is my heart, and Mexican food is the key to my heart. Amado's carne asada fries, breakfast burritos, being hungover and miserable in the parking lot of a Filliberto's while you wait for your quesadilla is perhaps what I miss the most. (Second to my besties and my parents, obvs). 

So, sometimes I get all nostalgic and I just want some damn Mexican. I cannot really recreate the greasy, beany, cheesy wonder of drive-through Mexican food, but I do what I can. 

So, here we are at fajitas. My dad makes fajitas, but his are better than this. He makes skirt steak fajitas on the mega-grill, so I'm aiming for that good and if I make it halfway, I'll be pretty pleased. 

This is a paleo diet, except for the tortillas, which you obviously can take out and still enjoy the wonder of half-decent Mexican food.  

What you'll need for a little taste of the desert:

2 stoplight bell peppers, sliced. I used red and yellow, but you can use whatever colors you want.

1 lb 'pork for fajitas' sidenote, thank you Commissary for so clearly marking your meat products. 

1 poblano pepper, sliced

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 packet McCormick's fajita powder (so I have no idea if this is paleo, but whatever. Yolo and stuff)

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup water

The 'pork for fajitas' came pre-sliced, but if you're just using a hunk of meat, cut it into strips. 

Put the olive oil in a big pot over medium high heat.

Add in the pork and let it sizzle for a minute. 

Add the peppers, bell and poblano.

Once everything is sizzling away happily, add the water and the seasoning.

Mix everything around so the seasoning doesn't clump on to anything.

Cover, lower the heat to medium and let it cook for around ten minutes.

You can serve and leave the leftovers on low to keep everything warm.

These weren't very spicy (jalapenos next time) but they were definitely what I was looking for. It had tacos and peppers and a little bit of zing. If you're like me and you can't substitute anything in the world for a good burrito, this might help.
Signed, a recovering carne asada addict.
(Jk, there is no recovering from that)

Breakfast of champions

Breakfast is a pretty easy meal for paleo, because it's basically bacon and eggs every morning, no sweat. Plus, that much protein in the morning means I'm not hungry again during the day until nearly three. As much as I love bacon and eggs in all its permutations (soft-boiled eggs, hard boiled eggs, scrambled, fried) sometimes it's nice to mix things up. I've been experimenting with paleo pancakes, but with zero success so far. There's tons of recipes online, but mine just turn into mushy puddles. 

So, we're sticking with egg-based recipes so far, but I'll keep experimenting with non-egg breakfast foods. 

Anyway, this Mexican inspired brekkie is an amalgamation of a few recipes I found online, and whatever the hell was in my fridge. I think I'm getting the hang of throwing things together and getting pretty solid results. 

I made this recipe again this weekend for Mr. Idiot, and improved it vastly, but...I didn't take any pictures for you, so use your damn imagination. 

Breakfast of Champions

This recipe kept me full right up until dinner last Sunday, and then again for breakfast and lunch the next day. So it will (in theory) feed four.

1 sweet potato, diced

1/2 bell pepper diced

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced (or 1 tbsp pre-minced stuff)

2 tbsp coconut oil

handful of spinach (Or any other filler you like, spring onions, broccoli, anything you like)

2 roma tomatoes (you can use any tomatoes, this is just what was in the fridge)

7 eggs

Bacon. As I've said before, you can NEVER have too much bacon, I made 4 strips each

Chop everything, all the veggies get diced up and thrown in together.

Once the veggies are chopped, add coconut oil to large skillet, and add garlic over medium heat. 

Once the pan is hot and the garlic starts to brown add in chopped vegetables. Don't add the spinach yet. 

Once the sweet potatoes are soft to the touch (Use a spoon, not your hands, dur) add in the spinach and lower the heat to medium low. 

Crack the eggs directly into the skillet and mix everything together until it's all a nice big lumpy mess. 

Serve with bacon and some sliced and salted avocado. Feel free to add salsa, hot sauce, whatever you like. 

Alternatively, substitute the bacon for pork sausage mixed in with the eggs. I added two big spoonfuls of salsa to the scramble, and it was SO MUCH better the second time around. I think the fat from the pork sausage really helped bring all the vegetable flavors out. 

So. Good. 

I'm now officially on the lookout for paleo tortillas, so I can make breakfast burritos with this lovely, delicious mess. 

Taco Tuesday update

Sorry about the lag in posts everyone. Yesterday was a bit mad. Mr. Idiot had a late night on Tuesday, and then had to get up and back to work at 2am so it was a little nuts.
Anyway, here's the scoop on the tacos.
They came out pretty good. I was starving when I started cooking and the smell nearly drove me crazy. Mr Idiot had no complaints, and neither did I, but they were just kind of bland. I'm not really sure how to spice them up (Sorry). I used some taco seasoning Mr. Idiot picked up on the way home, as well as a couple of sliced up jalapenos, but it just kind of tasted boring. Nothing exciting, nothing terrible.

Anyway, here's what I did for the tacos. Admittedly, these took like five minutes and they were good for something quick. So if that's what you're after these are a good idea. Though honestly, if I had the beef already defrosted, I'd go for the meatballs. They were just as easy, though they admittedly take longer to cook.
However, if you've got a hankering for tacos, here you go.

1lb of ground beef
2 jalapenos, sliced and diced
1/2 an onion sliced
1/2 a packet of taco seasoning (optional)
garlic powder
2 cups of rice

Brown the beef in a pan over medium heat. Use a pan that's bigger than you think you'll need, because to keep the beef from clumping into bits too big for tacos, you need to move it around pretty vigorously. I ended up getting beef and onions all over the stove, so take that advice unless you want a pain in the rear cleanup.

Slice the jalapenos and the onions and put them in with the beef. Continue mixing and moving everything around.

Add the salt, taco seasoning, garlic powder and whatever else you're inclined to put in.

I put a lid on the pan at this point and lowered the heat and left it to simmer for a while, while I cooked the rice.

Most of the time when I have tacos, there's shredded lettuce and tomatoes and beans and stuff, but I didn't really have the traditional trimmings. Maybe that's why these kind of fell flat, I don't know. I had some leftover tinned diced tomatoes I'd used earlier in the week to stretch out spaghetti sauce, so I warmed them up and served those with the rice and the meat.

All told this took me about ten minutes, fifteen if you include chopping the jalapenos and the onions.

This is a recipe I'd really like to improve on because it is super easy and super quick, so if you have suggestions, leave them in the comments!