Fresh Margaritas!

Hola! Guess what? We are almost a full running household! We have internet (woo!), television, and we even have a table to eat on like normal people! Yay! Time to celebrate... time for a margarita! I love margaritas. I don't love that bottled mix that costs $6 a pop and is full of high fructose corn syrup and other sketchy chemicals. Making your own homemade mix is SO EASY & tastes wayyyyy better it's crazy to buy the bottled stuff. This mix is MUCH cheaper too. Then you can buy more tequila. For more margaritas. Winning!

You should also definitely serve them in pretty glasses. Pretty glasses make everything taste better. This mix is essentially what you would call a "simple syrup" mixed with fresh lemon & lime juices for a perfect sour mix. Simple syrup is 1 part  sugar to 1 part water- I've also read that you can do 2 parts honey to 1 part water but I haven't personally tried that yet! Let me know if you do... The best thing about making your own mix is that you can make it super sweet if you love a sweet margarita or more sour if that's your thing.

Ingredients:
For the Simple Syrup:
1 Cup white sugar
1 Cup Water
For Sour Mix:
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lime
+ 1 Shot of good Tequila per margarita

Step 1: Combine sugar & water in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and stir well. Heat on high, stirring frequently until the mix comes to a rolling boil. Whisk until sugar is dissolved and remove from heat.

Step 2: Transfer sugar- water mixture to glass containers, cover & chill completely. A mason jar would be perfect for this step- I just couldn't find any of mine, I've apparently left them scattered all over the U.S. this past year and had to go buy a new case...

 

Step 3: In a separate container juice 1 lemon and 1 lime.

Step 4: To assemble margarita: Over ice, in a salt-rimmed glass if desired, combine 1 shot (1.5 oz.) tequila, 1 shot simple syrup (sugar water mixture), and half a shot of lemon- lime juice mixture. Stir well, garnish with a lime and enjoy!

Enjoy!

P.S. These are freaking fantastic with Skinny Chicken Fajitas for a full Mexican meal! 

Skinny Chicken Fajitas!

Did you know that just 1 flour tortilla is nearly 100 calories?! For basically zero nutritional gain. It's basically just 100 calories of gluten and carbs. And for what? Something to hold your yummy Mexican food? It's time to ditch the tortillas and eat a plate full of good-for-you Mexican. 

This is what I call my chicken fajita remix! It is soooo good. Tons of super fresh ingredients piled on top of marinated chicken- it is heavenly! I think we've had this for dinner at least 3 times in the past 2 weeks.. I'm kind of obsessed with it. Why has it taken me so long to blog? Well for one, the first time I made this I inhaled it so quickly that I didn't take any pictures, sorry. ALSO it's been about 80 degrees and gorgeous all week so we've been going to the beach everyday, sorry I'm not sorry about that one:). And probably the more important reason, we still don't have internet hooked up in the house. That happens sometime next week- so there's that. But we've been eating super good and I am so excited to share with y'all what's been going down in my kitchen. Make sure you stay tuned :-) OH and PS: the other brilliant thing about this meal? Save your leftover chicken & peppers mixture, dice it up and make a chicken fajita omelet the next morning. It is AMAZING! 2 meals for the price of 1 people, you can't beat that!

My chicken fajita omelet! Just the leftover chicken & pepper mixture, some shredded cheese & pico de gallo!

Okay now to the fajitas...
Ingredients:
For the Chicken Marinade:
1 Package chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 1/2 tsp. Ground Cumin
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Onion Powder
1 tsp. Seasoned Salt
1/2 tsp. Paprika
1/2 tsp. Black Pepper
1/4 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
For the Fajitas:
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
About 1 Cup sweet peppers (or bell peppers) cut into strips
1/2 Cup shredded Colby Jack cheese
1/2 Cup prepared Pico De Gallo
 For the home-made Guacamole (you could buy store-bought, I prefer homemade)
1 Ripe Avocado, mashed
1 tsp. Lime Juice
1/2 tsp. Salt
3 Tbsp. Prepared Pico De Gallo (diced tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lime juice)
1 tsp. Diced Jalapeno (skip if you don't like spicy!)
1 tsp. Minced Garlic

Step 1: Place your cut chicken strips into a gallon sized ziploc bag. (or a container with a top)

 
Step 2: Add your spices to the ziploc with the chicken and shake to coat.

Step 3: Add the olive oil and shake again to make sure all of the chicken is coated evenly. Marinate for at least 2 hours, or as long as over-night.

Step 4: Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium-high heat. 

Step 5: When your oil is good and hot add your chicken 

Step 6: While your chicken is cooking prepare your peppers for cooking. I used these sweet little peppers: 

How adorable are they? But any sweet bell pepper will do!

Step 7: When chicken is cooked through (about 5-7 minutes) Toss your pepper strips in and cook another 2-3 minutes.. I like my peppers a little crunchy still, if you prefer a softer pepper throw in the skillet when the chicken is about halfway cooked through.

Step 8: While the chicken and pepper mixture is cooking prepare your guacamole. Mash the avocado with the lime juice and salt.

Step 9: I use a prepared pico de gallo I get at the local supermarket, feel free to use your own homemade or sub salsa. This is the kind I use:

Step 10: Add pico de gallo, jalapeno, & garlic to your avocado and stir.

I seriously make this guacamole at least 2x a week, it is my FAVORITE thing ever.

Step 11: To prepare fajitas layer chicken and pepper mixture first:

Then top with shredded cheese:

Top with pico de gallo:

And finish with a big dollop of your guacamole:

You can serve your leftover guac with some chips and ENJOY! I will post a fab margarita recipe that goes GREAT with these sometime this week... :-)

And some gratuitous beach pix from this week: 

Okay I'm done now I swear. Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend! 

Paleo Buffalo Chicken Tenders!

Happy New Year everyone! I know, I'm like a week late on that one- but it's still 2013 right?! And seeing as I haven't posted this year, Happy New Year! I hope you all had fabulous holiday seasons filled with laughter and love and you are thoroughly enjoying this new year! I definitely had a good time over the holidays, probably a little bit too good of a time! Time to get back to reality and detox a bit. Speaking of reality, I am officially full time in our new house in Panama City, FL! Woo hoo! This is the first blog post I have EVER written in my own house. Isn't that crazy?! I started the blog when my hubby was deployed and I was living with my mom, continued it at my friends home in Arkansas, even wrote a post staying with my husband's family in Chicago- but I have never written from my own home! This week has been the first week we have been settled (sort of) in a home of our own since April 2012. Can not tell you how thankful I am for this house! The first morning back from the holidays we didn't have any food in the house but I managed to make some tea & oatmeal for the hubbs & I and fed the dogs, we were all eating breakfast together and it was just so deliciously NORMAL. Mind you, we had no furniture at that particular point and the house was basically empty, but just being in that moment with my little family felt so amazing. I had nearly forgotten what that was like. :)

The entire time we've been here I've been wanting to blog- and I even made 2 new recipes last week (this one being the first), we just have been so crazy busy I didn't have a moment to sit until today. So MY new year's resolution is to get back into blog mode. I have a notebook of all my recipe ideas and my adorable husband is the best guinea pig out there, so watch out world! We are still trying to keep things as paleo as possible- no wheat, no processed foods, just real foods- but I won't lie to you we both still eat a little bit of dairy. I've found that dairy in small amounts really doesn't affect me, but if I sit down and eat a bowl of ice cream I WILL be sick. A tablespoon of heavy cream in my morning coffee, okay- a scoop of sugary milky ice cream? Sick. If you are trying to be strict paleo feel free to cut the dairy out of any given recipe, this one for example makes a fabulous crispy seasoned chicken tender- you don't have to make the buffalo sauce (which contains butter). 

OKAY so buffalo chicken. I love buffalo chicken. I love it when I'm watching football, and I really love it for a weeknight meal because these tenders are EASY. Real easy. They are gluten- free, wheat-free, but not quite dairy free. We use grass-fed butter (KerryGold) feel free to omit the buffalo sauce all together or just use straight up hot sauce if you like spicy! These will DEFINITELY be making an appearance at our Super Bowl party and probably rank pretty high in  our weekly dinner menu rotation- my husband LOVED them. And so did I!

Ingredients:
About 1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or enough to be about an inch deep in your skillet)
8-12 Chicken Tenderloins, or a couple of chicken breasts cut into strips
2 Eggs, whisked
1 Cup Almond Flour
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. seasoned salt
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. cracked black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
For the Buffalo Sauce: (This makes a very MILD sauce, if you like it spicier increase hot sauce to 1/2 Cup)
1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter
1/4 Cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce

Step 1: Add olive oil to your frying skillet of choice, I used my cast iron skillet because I feel like it holds even heat the best. Make sure you have enough to be about an inch deep in the skillet. Heat oil to medium- high heat.

 
Step 2: In a pie pan or shallow dish whisk together your eggs. (I doubled this recipe for company when I made it, that's why it looks like more than 2 eggs!)

Step 3: In a 2nd pie pan or shallow dish whisk together the almond flour, garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt, chili powder, oregano, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Step 4: Set yourself up a little breading station: Egg- almond flour mix- skillet.

Step 5: When oil is hot enough (put a wooden spoon in and it'll bubble around it) start breading your chicken. First dip in the egg, coating both sides and then shaking off the excess:

Then into the almond flour mixture, breading both sides and shaking off excess:

 Then into the skillet:

Step 6: Repeat with remaining tenders, being careful not to over-crowd the skillet.

Step 7: Cook 4-5 minutes per side, or until tenders are golden brown and cooked through. Drain on a paper towel lined plate. If you are making a large batch, like I was, transfer to a cookie sheet and keep warm in a 300 degree oven until you are ready to dip them in the sauce.

Step 8: For the buffalo sauce: Place butter and hot sauce into a microwave safe dish that is big enough to dip the tenders into. Microwave on high for 1 minute or until the butter is melted, stir to combine.

Step 9: Dip cooked chicken tenders into the buffalo sauce, gently (I used tongs) coat both sides with sauce mixture.

ENJOY!