Tex Mex Bowls

One thing that I do every single weekend without fail is grocery shopping. I'd love to live close enough to a city for delivery, but until that happens, you'll find me walking the aisles looking for the ingredients for meals that week. 

When Jarrod and I moved in together, we averaged 3 meals a week at home in the evenings with leftovers, eating with friends and family, and the occasional date night out. I quickly made it a personal goal to find at least one new recipe idea to try each week and to have my list made out before getting to the store. Having Chase, at first, made this a bit more challenging, but over time it has made my life so. much. easier. 

I have a 4x6 notepad that I carry in my handbag for making my list. In the top right corner, I write out the meals we're having and list the ingredients needed on the left. Throughout the store, I check off each item. As we eat/make each meal, I scratch through the ingredient and meal on the left until the whole page is covered in scribbles by the end of the week. This could have saved me so much time if I'd started the process early so I wanted to share in case it helped anyone else out. 

One of my quick, go-to meals is Tex Mex Bowls. I love that these are ready in 15-20 minutes with cooking the chicken and it's loaded with vegetables and flavor! 

The first step that I do is cooking the chicken. I usually buy chicken tenderloins so that they're more consistent in size and I don't have to trim anything off and place it straight on a flat griddle pan or my recent purchase and new kitchen love, my cast-iron grill pan. I've tried to defrost meat for a meal the night before, but let's be honest, that only means that we're definitely not eating it  at our next meal. If I use the griddle, I'll cover the chicken in a vinaigrette based sauce. My favorite is Hidden Valley's Mango Chipotle Dressing. It's so good and has a great flavor for pairing with this dish!

Once I've gotten the chicken started, I'll pull the rest of the ingredients from around my kitchen. Starting in our snack cabinet, I grab Doritos Nacho Cheese chips. You can use any sort of tortilla chip, but these kick the flavor up a notch. We also really like the New York Bakery Texas Toast Cheddar Cheese Tortilla Strips. 

Most of the ingredients come from the refrigerator, sour cream, salsa, shredded lettuce, frozen seasonings, cheese, corn and limes. I used the frozen cilantro by dropping two cubes into the rice before cooking it in the microwave. 

I missed getting a photo of it, but we love the Birds Eye Steamfresh Fiesta Lime Corn. It's a great way to change up from plain corn and it's so perfect for this meal!

 

photo c/o Birds Eye

The last item that I get out of our cabinet is Uncle Ben's Ready Rice. I keep a few different flavors on hand at all times of these because they're quick and taste so good. The whole grain brown is my favorite. It's versatile and the whole grains are good for you, too. 

 

By this time, I've usually flipped my chicken and it's nearly done. Once it looks like the photo below, you're good to start fixing your bowl. I also use kitchen scissors for cutting mine up easily. They're aren't anything fancy, but my family knows that if it's in the kitchen crock, they're not to be used on anything but food. 

 

When you have all of your favorite ingredients on your plate, it's ready to enjoy! I've linked a few options below for different pans, but I personally used a T-Fal flat griddle and have a Pioneer Woman Cast Iron Grill Pan. 

Thanks for checking out Seasons of Style and I hope you liked this post!