Crock Pot Fajitas

Besides craving a particular dish, there are two good reasons I use when I choose to make dinner in a crock pot: to keep the kitchen from getting hot in the summer and when I have plans where I won't have time to put a meal together when I get home.  When my boys were younger and had sports practice after school, having dinner ready in the crock pot when we got home was the best thing ever.

I found this recipe on an ad in the newspaper for Hunt's Diced Tomatoes.  The fajitas were to be baked in the oven, but I converted the recipe to work in the crock pot one day and have never made the dish in the oven again.  The vegetables are not as crisp tender as when cooked the traditional way, but the flavor more than makes up for that.  

 The spices and oils are placed directly in the crock pot and mixed together.

Then the flank steak is cut into very thin slices.

The meat is placed in the crock pot and tossed until all of the pieces are coated with the spices.

Then the vegetables get sliced into thin strips.  To get onion strips, I cut the onion in half and then cut each half into thin strips and separate the pieces into individual pieces.

The pepper strips and onions get placed on top of the beef.

The last layer is the canned tomatoes with green chilies.  At this point, the lid could be put on top and the crock pot turned on to low for 5 hours.  Or, if the preparation is done much earlier than needed, the removable crock can be covered with plastic wrap and placed in the refrigerator until ready to cook.  When I do this, I add an extra 15 minutes to the cooking time to bring the pot up to temperature from having been in the refrigerator.  I pull the crock out of the refrigerator, take off the plastic wrap, put the lid on and turn it on and let it go.

When the dish is done and you lift the lid, you'll see that the mixture has cooked down quite a bit.  One of the keys to cooking in a crock pot is to not lift the lid until the dish is completely done (unless the recipe calls for adding an ingredient shortly before the end of cooking time) because it greatly reduces the temperature inside the crock which takes a long time to come back up to the cooking temperature.

  

Before serving, I mix the beef and vegetables together.  Cooking in a crock pot keeps everything very moist, therefore there are a lot of juices in this dish, so I use tongs to transfer the fajita meat mixture to a warmed tortilla for eating.

Sour cream and/or guacamole can be added at this point, but we like the flavor so much as is, that we never add anything to our fajitas.  Enjoy!

Crock Pot Fajitas

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 teaspoons chili powder

4 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

2 pounds flank steak

2 cans (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes with mild green chilies

2 small green bell peppers

2 small red bell peppers

1 large brown onion

Flour tortillas

In a 4 - 5 qt. crock pot, mix together oil and spices.  Thinly slice beef across the grain into thin strips; add to crock pot and toss until all pieces are coated in spice mixture.  Cut peppers and onions into thin strips.  Place on top of steak.  Add canned tomatoes.  Cover and cook on low for 5 hours.  Mix all ingredients in crock pot; serve in tortillas.

Beef Fajita Pizza

The is the next in the series of pizzas I make.  Although the BBQ Chicken Pizza is the favorite in my house, this comes in a close second.  This is another easy dish to put together because I use frozen bell pepper strips and pre-sliced stir-fry beef strips.  Also, using the Boboli Pizza Shell means I don't have to prepare pizza dough.  Because there is little prep work, this dish is on the table in under half an hour!  I originally saw Sandra Lee demonstrate this recipe on her Semi-Homemade show on the Food Network and printed it from their website.

I think food is more appealing when it looks good, and this colorful pizza is something anyone would want to try!  It gets 8's on the Melnarik rating scale!

Of course, I use my Pampered Chef baking stone to bake it in the oven.  There is no preparation necessary, I just place the pizza shell on the stone.

Because it is a fajita pizza, I add salsa in lieu of pizza sauce.

I top that with pre-shredded Mexican blend cheese (Monterey Jack and cheddar cheeses).

The beef and pepper strips get tossed with a little olive oil and taco seasoning and cooked in a skillet for a few minutes before adding them to the pizza, and into the oven it goes.

It smells great coming out of the oven and the cheese is all melted.  I'm getting hungry as I type this!

The last step is to add some fresh cilantro and serve.  Isn't it pretty?  It is best to let it rest for about 5 minutes after taking it out of the oven before cutting so the cheese doesn't run onto the baking dish when you remove the first slice.  Enjoy!

Beef Fajita Pizza 

¾ lb. stir-fry beef strips

1 pound frozen pepper stir-fry, thawed

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons taco seasoning mix

1 Boboli Pizza Shell

¾ cup prepared salsa

2 ½ cups shredded Mexican blend cheese

Fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish

Sour cream and guacamole (optional), for serving

Preheat oven to 425°.  In a large bowl, combine beef strips, peppers, oil and taco seasoning.  Cook in a skillet over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until beef is cooked and vegetables are crisp-tender.

Place pizza shell on a baking stone or cookie sheet.  Top with salsa, cheese, and beef and pepper mixture.  Bake in the oven at 425° for 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and sprinkle with fresh cilantro.  Let sit 5 minutes before serving.