Bread-Baking and Fajitas for dinner, a tribute to the "Pioneer Woman"....

Yesterday I checked another thing off the 'list' and baked some bread. One loaf to eat this week, and another to freeze and have on hand when James is born. (I eat toast for breakfast almost every morning--and breakfast toast is amazing with homemade bread!) This was a new recipe from my More With Less cookbook. I made Easy No-Knead Whole Wheat Bread. It had a few eggs (not so typical compared to the other two kinds I've made this summer) and three tablespoons of yeast in it. It's a good think I kept an eye on it, because it would have overtaken the kitchen, if I'd let it rise the recommended time. Something else different about this recipe: it makes a stiff batter, not dough, so it really doesn't expect you to knead it at all. Instead you pour (or coax, very messily, as I did) it into bread pans. Anyway. It made the nicest huge loaves I've baked this summer...and it is so moist! Verdict: recipe is a keeper.

Then I also made Fajitas for dinner. Mid-morning I thawed a few chicken breasts and then marinated them with a somewhat new marinade recipe mid-day til dinnertime. I love this marinade. So I felt inspired by, just not quite as talented as, the Pioneer Woman's cooking blog section. I love her photos, so I thought it would be fun to take a few step-by-step pictures. I didn't do this nearly to the extent that she does. (Made me wonder: how often does she have to have her camera cleaned?...my kitchen is messy when I cook...and just how much longer does cooking take for her when she stops every three minutes to get a great photo?)

The ingredients I started out with for the chicken marinade: 2 chicken breasts, slided thinly (easier done when still slightly frozen), 4 T veg. oil, 3 T lime juice, 2 cloves minced garlic, a healthy dash of chili pwdr., 1/2 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp. red chili flakes, and a small bunch of cilantro, chopped up finely (2-3T?)! I marinated this for about five hours, but I think maybe up to 24 hours the first time I made it. I used a few recipes from Allrecipes.com and tweaked all of them to come up with this earlier this summer. It's delicious!!! If you don't love cilantro, you could omit it, but I can't guarantee it would be as lovable as I find it.

In a med-high hot skillet with an extra drizzle of veg. oil, I dumped in the chicken and marinade. (There's really not so much extra juice. I'd double the recipe if making more than two chicken breasts.) I let this cook for about 10 minutes. While doing so, I....

chopped up veggies. We had a yellow pepper from our garden. I bought a green pepper and white onion to add. I used a med.-sized onion.

I added the peppers to the cooking chicken and stirred frequently for 15-20 minutes, until the veggies were nice and soft and the onions a little caramelized.
We ate the fajitas with sour cream, fresh salsa, and the best Mexican Rice I've ever had! I included the link to Allrecipes, there, where I found it. The texture was perfect--it's all about cooking the rice in a little oil before adding liquid...this was new for me! In the recipe, I used salsa, instead of tomato sauce and one chicken bouillon cube in water, to replace the broth. It was my most successful Spanish/Mexican rice ever. I've tried about three different kinds. Anyway. Enjoy. I'm going to go eat something, because all this talk about food has made me hungry!