Beef fajitas
Every once in a while, I vow to seriously cook ahead on a Sunday -- to prep and freeze mountains of meals for the future, which we will pop out and cook on weeknights without breaking a sweat.
On the few occasions when I have kept this resolution, I've turned to the book Fix, Freeze, Feast, by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik. It's set up for this kind of bulk cooking and buying, and even has helpful cooking instructions in label form that you can copy and tape onto your frozen bags of food. Those are great to have if you like to cook for new moms, friends who are sick, etc.
Anyway, we recently tried the bulk Beef Fajitas recipe from the book...
(Photo by me)
I thought it might work for the kids because fajitas come in parts: You can eat just the steak, or the steak and veggies, or everything with a tortilla, with cheese or not.
These weren't a hit with the young ones, but it was easy to whip up a quesadilla (which my daughter does like) with a spare tortilla and some of the cheese. But the adults were big fans, which is good, because there are more packages of prepped fajitas waiting in the freezer...
Beef fajitas
Makes 4 entrees, with 4 servings each
1 tray (about 6 pounds) boneless top sirloin steaks
1/2 cup lime juice (takes about 5 limes)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
8 teaspoons minced garlic (about 24 cloves)
4 large onions, cut into strips
4 large green bell peppers, cut into strips
4 two-gallon freezer bags or grocery bags, labeled with recipe title and date
4 one-gallon freezer bags
4 one-quart freezer bags
On hand for cooking each entree:
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
10 flour tortillas
1 cup shredded Mexican blend of four cheeses, or cheddar cheese
Sour cream, salsa, guacamole, or other fajita toppings
Blot steaks with paper towels and trim excess fat. Cutting across the grain, slice each steak into narrow strips. Divide beef evenly among the 1-gallon bags.
Whisk together lime juice, soy sauce, oil, cumin, oregano, chili powder, and black pepper in a medium bowl. Divide the marinade evenly over the beef. Into each bag of beef strips measure 2 teaspoons garlic. Seal.
Divide onion and green pepper strips evenly among the 1-quart bags. Seal.
Into each of the 2-gallon bags, place a bag of beef in marinade and a bag of onions and peppers. Seal and freeze.
To cook one entree: Completely thaw one of the packaged entrees in the refrigerator. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and peppers and stir-fry until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove vegetables from skillet and add beef. (Note: if you add the marinade with the beef, you'll get a moist, stir-fried kind of steak, but not the sear of a classic fajita. If you prefer the sear, pour the marinade into a separate skillet before you cook the beef, and boil it to add as you like to the seared beef at the end.)
Stir-fry beef until well-browned, about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat and return vegetables, stirring to combine. Serve with tortillas and cheese. Add fajita toppings as desired.
--Adapted from Fix, Freeze, Feast, by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik
Per serving: 826 calories, 47 grams protein, 39 grams fat, 13 grams saturated fat, 68 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams fiber, 108 milligrams cholesterol, 1,673 milligrams sodium
