Spring Madness: And, three pounds of beef fajitas will feed three teenagers exactly once

Sometime in late March, I invariably launch on a series of grandiose projects, assuming that the jolt to my system prompted by a couple of warm sunny days is an accurate indicator of the level of energy and interest I will maintain through the next two months. Invariably, I am wrong.

However, ‘hope springs eternal’ and all that, so I’m knee-deep in the chaos of moving THREE rooms of my house at once. The Teen Queen will be sticking around for a while, so we decided that having her bedroom in the basement will give her the space and privacy we all need in order for this arrangement to work. John got booted to her old room and my office/craft space was relocated to his room, necessitating all three rooms be in some state of flux for the last ten days.

There is an actual Bottomless Pit, not just a teenager's stomach

I’m proud that we’ve only resorted to carryout once, but dinners have not been stellar; I’m very much thinking about what I can pull together with an absolute minimum of planning, shopping, and effort. Nothing fun, nothing new, and certainly nothing that makes more mess! Given our newly re-ignited passion for Corn Thing, it makes sense that we’ve been having all sorts of variations on taco night, which lets everyone assemble their own plate and eat at their leisure.

It’s probably inevitable that the answer to taco night came from the same source as Corn Thing, a small volume that feels like the least Jen-like cookbook I own (Anna calls it “Mexican Food For White Midwesterners” but that didn’t stop her from raving about this meal). Paging through, I see that I’ve actually cooked quite a few dishes from it….time to check my nascent cookbook snobbery.

This fajita recipe fit the bill on a night I didn’t have time for marinating, shredding, or fussing. I doubled the recipe (hoping in vain for leftovers) so it didn’t fit into my largest skillet in a single batch; if you have the onions/peppers going in one pan and the meat in another, everything should come out at the same time but it was worth it to just do everything in batches so I had one less pan to wash. The toppings, as always, are up to you.

Adapted from Quick Mexican Cooking by Cyndi Duncan and Georgie Patrick.

Beef Fajitas

1 ½ lb flank steak, thinly sliced, or chicken breasts, cut into strips (I used GFS pre-cut beef fajita strips, which cut down tremendously on prep time)
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ garlic pepper mix (a spice Anna found on a road trip; you could use a teaspoon of garlic salt in place of this and the garlic powder)
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp Aleppo pepper, which I put on everything lately; feel free to substitute whatever your favorite pepper/chile happens to be right now
4 Tbsp oil
1 large onion, sliced vertically
1-2 bell peppers, sliced

Combine the meat with the Worcestershire sauce and spices. Using half the oil, saute the onion and bell peppers until slightly charred and tender but not mushy (we’re going for that Mexican restaurant sizzling plate effect; a cast iron pan is perfect for this). Remove the vegetables to a plate.

Heat the remaining oil in the same pan. Working in batches if necessary, saute the meat just until cooked through.

Serve with corn or flour tortillas, salsa, guacamole, etc. etc. etc.