THE UN-FAJITA FAJITA

Old Mother Frugal’s freezer is overrun with sliced peppers.  There are green ones, orange ones and red ones because whole peppers were on the “Manager’s Special” clearance table at the local grocery store.

It didn’t take long to slice, bag and tag them. They sit as the top layer of my deep freezer chest in the garage. Found a recipe for crispy chicken fajita wraps and what a perfect use of these discounted sliced peppers!  The peppers now have purpose.

Needing a fajita seasoning recipe, Google provided several from which to choose and all the ingredients were in Old Mother Frugal’s pantry.

It took some searching, but there was a rotisserie chicken breast in the freezer too.  No cooking required, just defrost and dice into cubes for this recipe.

An unopened package of flour tortillas lay in wait on the pantry shelf.  Twelve to be exact.  Twelve crispy chicken fajita wraps ready to be stuffed.

As each tortilla wrap was warmed, stuffed and folded into a rectangular burrito shape, it was becoming evident that the yield was not going to be twelve.  By the time six were made, the total was going to be eight wraps. 

Was there too much filling in the wrap?  Why wasn’t the yield twelve?  They looked lovely, all eight of them but they weren’ twelve.  Twelve.  What went wrong?!

And then there was the answer…the sole reason for undertaking this cooking project, the sliced peppers.

None of them made it into the recipe.  All those beautiful, colorful sliced peppers just became a forgotten ingredient.

Old Mother Frugal no longer had the expected “crispy chicken fajita wraps” but in its place were eight chicken and cheese burritos.  How frustrating!

Too late to un-wrap eight burritos and add peppers.  Instead, they were wrapped for the freezer with a memo to self.  Cook peppers and onions.  When ready to serve for dinner, the peppers and onions will be placed on top of the burritos. 

Instead of hiding these colorful sliced bell peppers inside the tortilla wrap, they will now be on full display outside the wrap making for a beautiful presentation when serving the meal.

The cooking project didn’t end as originally planned but it did have a happy ending!

SOUND THE BUGLE!  Today’s tip: The meal had a projected yield of 12 wraps and the yield was short. A side dish of beans and a salad can be added as healthy extenders to make this a meal to feed 4-6 people. Three adults/teens will each have two wraps and younger children can have one each and a side dish.