15 Minute Chicken Fajitas

With all the reasons Thrive Life has recently shared about why to use Thrive Foods, I've upped our use of Thrive for meals. With the rush to get to soccer practice, games, riding lessons, etc., dinner often needs to be a quick and easy meal. For last night, I planned chicken fajitas.  This was my first time trying THRIVE Seasoned Chicken Slices (I've always used the Chopped Chicken for other recipes).  I was IMPRESSED!  These are huge slices of chicken breast and they rehydrated fast!  I had expected dinner to take me 20-30 minutes to prepare but it was ready faster than I could get the table set.  And that was while both of my girls were requiring assistance with homework (one in another room).

In between homework problems, I reconstituted the chicken slices and splashed the peppers (I used both red and green bell peppers) and onion with water in a strainer.  As the chicken rehydrated, I put a chunk of butter in the pan on high heat.  I quickly added the peppers and onion and let them start to carmelize.  Then I scooped the chicken out of the bowl of water and added it to my veggies.

It only took a few minutes for the chicken to reheat.  I sprinkled it with Chef's Choice (which we add to almost everything now) and added a splash of lime juice.  I served the chicken mixture on flour tortillas with Cheddar Cheese (Monterey Jack would be good too) and Sour Cream.

This was also my first time using the Chopped Onions (FD).  I will have to admit that for fajitas, I wish the onions were cut a bit bigger but as I pondered it, I couldn't think of any other recipe I'd use a large onion slice for to request "Onion Slices" as a new product.

Here's my put together fajita from last night:

Want the recipe?

For the month of May 2014, THRIVE Seasoned Chicken Slices, Red Bell Peppers and Green Bell Peppers are on sale!

This post is being shared with Mouthwatering Mondays, Made by You Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, MMM Block Party, Marvelous Mondays, Monday Funday, Sweet Sharing Monday and other link parties - Go check out all the fun!

Chicken Enchiladas and Enchilada Sauce Recipe

It used to be that I stocked cans of tomato sauce in my cupboard for making pizza sauce and enchilada sauce.  But then I bought Thrive Tomato Powder.  It only takes a moment to turn the powder into sauce.  I've tried several different recipes but this week's trial seems to be a winner.  I used this recipe from Healthy Family Cookin to get started.

I grabbed my Thrive Tomato Powder and got to work.

 Adapting the original recipe just a bit, I added salt, Thrive dehydrated onions, and garlic powder to my tomato powder. 

After boiling the water, I added it to my tomato powder mixture.  Next up, convert this tomato sauce to enchilada sauce.

For that I turned to this enchilada sauce recipe I've used for years but I changed it up some (replaced the salt and garlic with garlic salt, and reduced the chili powder to 1 T per my child's complaint that it's been too spicy).

Now let's turn it into enchiladas.  I've used this recipe for years. I'm often asked "what should I buy?" by those just getting started.  My favorite advice is to pick a family favorite recipe and convert it to Thrive ingredients, then purchase those items.  This is one of those recipes for me.  And I have purchased the ingredients - I just didn't use them this time. 

This day, I chopped up leftover chicken breast, added 1 recipe of cream of chicken soup substitute (made from white bean flour), a can of Rotel and regular cheddar cheese.  Next, I poured in 1/2 of my enchilada sauce.  To convert, simply use rehydrated Thrive Freeze Dried chopped chicken and rehydrated Thrive Freeze Dried Cheddar Cheese (or go crazy and use both the cheddar and Thrive Freeze Dried Monterey Jack!).

 Spoon into flour tortillas, roll them up and lay down in a sprayed 9x13 pan.

Once you've used up all the "enchilada goop" (we use fancy words like that at our house), cover the enchiladas with the remaining enchilada sauce and as much cheese as you like (we like a lot).  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Here are the recipes for you:

Tomato Sauce

(original recipe from Healthy Family Cookin')

¼ Cup + 2 Tbsp. Thrive Tomato Powder

1/8 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. Thrive Chopped Onions

¼ tsp. garlic powder

¾ Cup + 2 Tbsp. water, boiling

In a small bowl combine the tomato powder, salt, onions and garlic powder. Pour hot water over powder mixture and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Makes the equivalent of 8 oz of tomato sauce.

Enchilada Sauce 

2 T vegetable oil
2 T flour

1 T chili powder
1/2 t ground cumin
1 recipe tomato sauce (above)
2 c water
1 t garlic salt

Heat oil in 2 qt saucepan; stir in flour and chili powder.  Cook for 1 minute.
Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 min. 

 (converted and changed from recipe I found here years ago)

 Chicken Enchiladas

1 pkg flour tortillas (soft taco or burrito size - your preference or what's on sale)
1 can cream of chicken soup or 1 recipe of substitute
8 oz shredded cheddar or mexican blend cheese (Thrive Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese)
1 can Ro-Tel (original works but the Mexican version with cilantro and lime is best)
2 cups leftover chicken or rehydrated Thrive Chopped Chicken
 Enchilada Sauce (recipe above)
 

Combine chicken, soup, Ro-Tel, 3/4 of the cheese and 1/4-1/2 of the enchilada sauce.

Spray bottom of 9x13 pan.

Put 2-3 large spoonfuls  into each tortilla.  Wrap tortilla around filling and place seam side down in 9x13 pan.  Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas and cover with remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Copy Cat Recipe - Chili's Loaded Baked Potato Soup

With both of my children at school now, my husband and I have been trying to have our dates for lunch since it helps the budget to not pay for a babysitter on top of eating out or an activity.  Our last lunch date was to Chili's and we both fell in love with their Loaded Baked Potato Soup.  I came home and immediately pinned this copy cat recipe to try later.  That later was yesterday for lunch but it was a last minute decision and I hadn't read the full recipe before I started making it.  That can be a problem when it calls for you to bake potatoes for an hour before making the soup.  Solution:  THRIVE!  We pulled out our THRIVE FD Diced Potatoes and the soup was ready in less than 30 minutes.  Interested to try it for yourself?   Of course, if you prefer to spend an hour baking potatoes then burning your hand trying to scoop out the middle, you are welcome to use real potatoes :)

Warning:  It was so delicious that my husband declined the leftovers I was serving for dinner and ate another large bowl of the soup (leaving me just a few spoonfuls for today's lunch).  Next time I may have to double this recipe.

THRIVE'd Copy Cat Recipe

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Soup
3 T butter
6 T THRIVE Chopped Onions*
2 T flour
4 t THRIVE Chicken Bouillon
6 cups water
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups prepared THRIVE Potato Beads**
1 t salt
3/4 t pepper
1/2 t basil
1/8 t thyme
2 cup heavy whipping cream***
1 1/2 cup THRIVE Freeze Dried Chopped Potatoes

Garnish
 1/2 cup THRIVE Cheddar Cheese (rehydrated)****
1/4 cup crumbled cooked bacon*****

2 green onions, chopped (green part only) OR 1/4 cup THRIVE Freeze Dried Green Onions

Instructions
1.  You can rehydrate your dehydrated onions for just a few moments in water if you prefer.  Melt butter in large pot and saute onions until light brown.  Add flour to the onions and stir to make a roux.
2.  Add water, chicken bouillon, cornstarch, mashed potatoes and spices and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
3.  Add FD Potatoes and heavy whipping cream to pot and bring back to a boil.  Then reduce heat and simmer the soup for another 15 minutes or until potatoes have hydrated.
4.  Spoon into bowls and top with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese, bacon and green onions.

Notes:
* I used the dehydrated onions from THRIVE because I didn't want large chunks of onion.  You could also use the THRIVE Freeze Dried Chopped Onions.
** The measurement is for after preparing, not the quantity of Potato Beads from the can.  You can also substitute your preferred instant mashed potatoes.
***The original recipe I was using called for half and half but I had heavy whipping cream already so I used that.  I also increased the amount of the heavy cream to allow for reconstituting the FD Potatoes.
****I actually used cheese from my grocery store this time.  Both will work.
***** I used 4 slices of bacon and didn't measure.  For a shelf stable recipe or didn't have bacon in your refrigerator, you could use bacon bits.
******I was out of fresh green onions, and haven't gotten any of the new THRIVE FD Green Onions yet (even as a consultant, I just can't everything right away but the Green Onions are on my list to get soon.)  The 1/4 cup of the FD Green Onions is an estimate. You'll want to play with that quantity to rehydrate the right amount for your family's taste preferences.

I think this recipe would also be good if I added a handful of THRIVE FD Sweet Corn (note the exactness of my measurement there).