The delicious fun continues in my kitchen! I am on a mission: to keep us all out of the fast food drive-thru lane as often as possible.

Now, I’m not saying that I (or you) will never go through a drive-thru again, nor eat in their familiar little plastic dining rooms. Of course we will. Occasionally you just want a good, greasy burger, or a crispy chicken sandwich. But if you’re relying on fast food weekly because you believe you’re too busy to cook, I’m going to try to help with recipes that taste fabulous and that make your heart happy!

Here’s a simple  recipe I created recently to help us accomplish preparing a delicious meal in fifteen minutes or less.

Spicy fajita steak & veggie saute

Ingredients:

• 1- 6 oz. bag of precooked steak strips (like John Soules Foods fajita steak strips, or substitute grilled chicken strips if that’s what you have)
• 6-8 stalks of asparagus, sliced into 1-inch pieces  (I only like the tips and softest end of stem; I use about half of each stalk)
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 4-6 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1 cup whole green beans (frozen)
• 1 cup fresh grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 TBS olive or canola oil
• 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic (2-3 cloves)
• 1 TBS salt-free seasoning blend, such as Mrs. Dash
• 1 TBS chili pepper paste (or 1/2 tsp ground cayenne, for a little kick)
• 1 bag “Steamers” brown rice (or make your own; the steamer bags in the frozen foods section just save so much time!)

Method:

In a 10-inch skillet, warm oil over medium heat, making sure it covers bottom of pan. Add asparagus, green onions and green beans, and cook for about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, three more minutes, and then add spices, pepper and garlic. Stir in for about a minute. Add the steak strips, and allow them to warm through, another 2-3 minutes. If at any time the pan seems too dry, add 1/2 cup hot water to the pan.

While steak is warming, stick the bag of rice in the microwave. The bag I purchased needed to cook for 4 minutes. I continued to allow the veggies and meat to saute while it cooked.

Taste the vegetable mixture; check for saltiness. Add as needed.

Place a serving of rice (I start with 1/2 cup) in a bowl and top with a generous serving of the sauteed beef and vegetables. If you’d like, serve with a salad and corn muffin or garlic bread. I ate it on its own, and that was just fine with me!

The speed of this recipe prep comes from using a bag of steamed rice, frozen green beans (which I prefer to canned since they aren’t salted), pre-sliced mushrooms, and minced garlic from a jar. All of the veggie chopping took just a few short minutes, as it was only a few green onions and stalks of asparagus. You could even leave the tomatoes whole if you were in a hurry; they’d burst with juicy goodness when you bit down on them, which might be good, anyway!

An alternative to using steamed rice: pre-cook brown or white rice on your day off. Store in the fridge for a few days in a sealed container. Use as needed.

Also, substitute other vegetables if you don’t like this combination. If you don’t like asparagus, add more green beans in their place, for example. Have some black beans or corn you need to use up? Toss those in there. If you’re vegetarian, use nice big slices of portabella mushrooms instead of steak strips.  Make it your own!

I hope you like this recipe as much as I did. It’s fast, beautiful, fun to make, and so delicious! Plus, you can eat it in your pajamas. (Please don’t do that at a burger joint.)

Oh, and my heart? It was really happy that I ate this awesome meal instead of a greasy burger. 🙂

You might also like:   Quick skillet dinner: grilled chicken with tomatoes, mushrooms and garlicky spinach

or perhaps a hearty soup to warm your bones: Mama Steph’s Spicy chicken-radiatore soup

Copyright 2013 Stephanie Hill Frazier. All rights reserved.