My apologies...and fajitas!

Okay, okay. I said I was gonna keep up with this blog, and I didn't, I know, I suck. I'm a terrible blogger. BUT, I'm trying really hard to get back into it and keep up with it. Anyone reading this (if there's even anyone, who freaking knows) is probably only reading it because they have similar stay-at-home mom/housewivery woes, so surely you can understand my predicament of not having any free time. Well, let me rephrase--I technically do have free time, like when my youngest is napping and my oldest is either in school or (now that he's out for summer) practically living at my mother's house. But my "free time" is oh so rarely dedicated to myself, it's usually dedicated to chores. And yet, for some reason, my house is never clean...

Luckily for me, I'm an extravagantly fast typist, and it will take me about 5 minutes to get this blog post typed and posted. I'm hoping by the time I've hit PUBLISH, my 18 month old will have stopped yelling "MAMA! MAMA!" from his crib and will actually be asleep for his nap. Fingers crossed, everybody, because otherwise, mama's evening beer schedule might get moved up a few hours. Kidding, kidding...probably kidding...

BUT, in an effort to apologize (mostly to myself) for my obvious lack in commitment to my blog, I am going to share one of my personal favorite recipes: BEEF FAJITAS!!!! Look guys, I even took a few pictures! So, I mean, really, you can tell I'm making an effort here...

This recipe is so simple and so delicious. Seriously, when I first told my husband I was making fajitas the next day for dinner, he didn't seem all that interested. Then suddenly it dawned on him what I meant and he asked, "Wait, you mean the fajitas you make that have like the green sauce on them?" To which I replied, "Well, umm...duh." His response was a very emphatic, "YESSSSS!!!!!" Apparently he thought I meant "plain" or "regular" fajitas. What a silly man.

Anyway, so the beef marinates for...well, however long you want it to, really, and every time you take it out of the fridge to stir it up, it makes your mouth water. It smells so good, and it tastes even better. I usually make pico de gallo to go with it too, which I didn't have time to make THIS time around, but I suppose I could post that recipe as well...

So, let's continue!

Don't you love the cluttered-island-counter backdrop for this photo? I think it really adds charm to the picture of the food. But oh just look at all the yummy stuff in that food processor...

...waiting patiently for me to hit the button and CHOP IT UP INTO TINY BITS!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Okay no really, every time I use my food processor, I act out a ridiculous and hilarious murder scene and pretend my food knows exactly what's about to happen to it. I have my fun when I can. "Don't tease me about my hobbies, I don't tease you for being an asshole."

I took this picture right after dumping the marinade over the beef and stirring it up. It sits in a glass baking dish, gets covered with foil, and gets put in the fridge. And then a few hours later...

...the cooking begins, and then your whole fridge smells heavenly, and your husband tries to steal the meat out of the pan until you threaten to make him watch you and the kids eat the fajitas while he eats nothing but plain tortillas for dinner. PLAIN tortillas. Not even any butter. That'll make him stop, I promise.

Lime-Cilantro Marinated Fajitas

Servings: I don't know...9 or 10 or so? I'm not very good at this.

Prep/cook time: Prep time about 15 or so minutes, cook time about 5 minutes. With several hours of longing for food in between, while waiting for the marinating process to be complete.

Ingredients:

• 6 cloves garlic
• 1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
• juice from 2-3 limes, or if you're like me and forget to buy limes at the store and have lime juice in the fridge, I'd say use about 3 tablespoons of lime juice, maybe a little more
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 1-2 cups loosely packed cilantro leaves (in case you've forgotten from my taco soup post, I LOVE cilantro, and in my opinion you just can't have too much of it)
• 1 cup corn oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2-3 lbs steak***
• 10 flour tortillas (or corn tortillas, if you're weird and prefer those)
• pico de gallo (see recipe below)
• shredded Mexican blend cheese
• sour cream

***I will freely admit that I don't know the first thing about steak, and don't know what kind of steak would be best for this. Flank steak, probably, in which case you can wait until it's done cooking before slicing it up and leave it whole while it's marinating. If you do that, you'd probably want to GRILL the steak instead of cook it on the stove like I do. HOWEVER, I always buy that "fajita steak" that comes in bags. I know, it's probably not as healthy, but steak is often way overpriced (to me anyway) and the fajita meat is already cooked, so I don't have to cook it for very long! I think I usually buy that John Soule's brand...?

Directions:

1. Add the garlic, red onion, lime juice, jalapeño, thyme, cilantro, corn oil and honey to a food processor or blender. Puree the ingredients until they're mixed well, and yes, the color will be sort of off-putting, but the smell will remind you of why you're making it.
2. Place the beef in a shallow baking dish and pour the marinade over it (or, you can put the meat and the marinade in a large Ziploc bag, which might actually be easier). Stir the meat up to make sure all the meat is covered in the marinade, and cover the dish with aluminum foil. Place it in the fridge, and force yourself to wait...for a while. Note: You can marinate it overnight if you prefer, but I usually make it in the morning and let it marinate all day, and I stir it about once every hour or hour and a half to make sure the meat is well incorporated with the marinade. If it's all in a Ziploc bag, however, there's no real need to stir it over and over, so you can easily let it sit in the fridge overnight instead.
3. Pour all this limey-cilantro-goodness covered steak into a pan and turn your stove on medium heat. If you buy the "fajita steak" like I do, the meat itself is already cooked, so you just have to cook it long enough to warm it up--hence why I prefer MY method, because it's way easier and faster. And cheaper. Did I mention cheaper?
4. You can drain off the marinade (or most of it) if you'd like, or you can leave it on and use it as a sauce on your fajitas. I usually drain off about half of it, only because of the corn oil, which can make a big mess for when you reheat leftovers (just ask my husband about our white sheets and how I dripped that marinade mess all over the place when I was trying to eat these fajitas in bed).
5. Serve on tortillas with whatever the hell you want, and enjoy!

Homemade Pico de Gallo

Prep time: 20 minutes or so, because chopping 6 tomatoes is really damned annoying and tedious work, especially when you have to chop up all this other crap with it too.

Ingredients:

• 6 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 red onion, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
• 1/2 lime, juiced (or about 1 tbsp lime juice, again, because I often seem to forget to buy limes)
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pinch ground cumin
• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. 
2. Refrigerate about 3-4 hours before serving.
3. ...That's it. Enjoy!