We’ve officially hit summer in the our home. 3 weeks ago I envisioned my summer days being spent in the kitchen, spending hours dishing up elegant meals made with love and care. In reality, I’m having way too much fun soaking up the Southern California sunshine to bother with cooking dinner every night. But, the kids gotta eat (who knew?), even though it’s summer. I’d like to share with you one of my one-dish meals that take very little effort besides cutting veggies and chicken: Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas.    

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Fajitas are one of my favorite things to order at Mexican food restaurants. I love how they always come out steaming on a hot iron skillet like this one. But on busy evenings, you can still get that traditional fajita taste without all the hassle of grilling and sautéing.

Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas  

Ingredients
4 small chicken breasts
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 white onion
1 packet fajita seasoning such as McKormick
Tortillas
Optional toppings: Lime, cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, beans
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375.
Thinly slice the veggies and spread them evenly on the bottom of a greased roasting pan. We use this Cuisinart pan  for everything, and it worked great in this recipe.

Sprinkle some fajita seasoning over the veggies, to taste.
Thinly slice the chicken and layer the pieces over the veggies. Sprinkle with more seasoning.  
Place the roasting pan in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then mix the veggies and chicken up. Return the pan to the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through (you can check if it’s cooked by making sure it reaches an internal temperature of 165 F).

To assemble the fajitas

Line the center of a tortilla with the fajita mixture and your choice of toppings. Squeeze lime over the filling, fold your tortilla up like a taco and enjoy!

Even though I love baking, on a beautiful summer day I’d much rather be enjoying some of our favorite staycation activities than sweating in the kitchen making dinner. Thankfully, this oven baked fajita recipe takes about 30-45 minutes from start to finish.

Are you a fan of fajitas? What’s your favorite fajita topping?

  

I am a huge fan of Italian dinners. Anything I can that involves tomatoes and pasta is a win in my book. If it were up to me, we’d be eating Italian dinners every night in our house. This recipe uses gnocchi and sausage, with brightly-colored veggies thrown into the mix, to create a belly-filling dinner that is big on flavor and small on cook time.  

Ingredients for Gnocchi and Sausage:

1 package (about 1 lb.) Gnocchi Italiani
2 tablespoons butter
1 package (about 12 oz.) Sweet Italian Sausage, sliced crosswise
2 medium zucchini, thinly sliced crosswise
2 cloves garlic
1 package (about 2 cups) of grape or cherry tomatoes
? cup grated parmesan cheese     

Set a large pot of water to boil and cook gnocchi according to package directions (about 2-3 minutes at a rolling boil). Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large pan. Sauté the sausage in butter until it begins to brown on both sides. Add the sliced zucchini and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for another 3 minutes or so.
Stir in the tomatoes and let them cook for a few minutes to heat through. It’s ok if they split open, this adds flavor to the dish. I used a package of “mixed medley cherry tomatoes” because it had a beautiful variety of color!
Add the cooked gnocchi to the pan and mix everything together well. Top with shredded parmesan cheese and step back to admire your pretty gnocchi and sausage dinner!

If you have small children, they may not love the gnocchi because its texture is a bit surprising. I think kids are expecting something sturdy because they look like little potatoes, but cooked gnocchi is really kind of squishy. I remember my oldest turning his nose up at it when he was little. At 13, however, he loved it and asked for seconds. The 3-year-old twins, who have to be eased into trying all new foods, were apprehensive and only ate what I told them to (“Ok, fine. Eat 2 pastas and then you can be done.”). The baby, who eats anything not nailed down, loved his gnocchi and sausage. So, in our house the gnocchi and sausage dinner went over about as well as anything else does: The boys loved it and the girls weren’t impressed. But what else is new? 😉