Old El Passé

Yes. They do go well together. Very well.

You might well think - oh god another food blogger (yes I am), bet she's a right snob when it comes to food. Well, no. I'm not. I like a decent shortcut every now and then, and one of my ultimate comfort dinners is fajitas. From a dinner kit. Yes that one.

But hold your horses and sighs of no-cooking-needed relief. I'm fine with shortcuts but I also love spending time actually cooking, so getting out of the kitchen quickly isn't always a good thing. I tend to embellish every sauce, dinner kit, paste or other shortcut (including Paxo).

Roast dinner leftovers

Forget expensive chicken breasts. On Sunday we had a lovely roast chicken. A roast dinner works out far cheaper and tends to generate some amazing leftovers for the week following - even with our huge appetites. This week we used our chicken in a comforting risotto and, for the first time, risked using it in a fajita dinner kit.

Slow(er) cooking

Quite by accident, my man's late arrival home from the football meant things cooked for far longer in the pan. Turns out slow cooked sliced red onions, green and red peppers, scraps of roast chicken and the fajita seasoning turn into something a bit magical. I threw in a handful of chopped coriander and some diced fresh mini plum tomatoes just to freshen up the mixture. 

Sides

Old El Paso kits miss a key ingredient for any Mexican meal though. Guacamole is so simple to make and I may as well make something a bit authentic to accompany this dinner.

For two people, mash one large ripe avocado. Finely grate about one quarter of a small red onion and half a small clove of garlic. Finely slice some coriander, squeeze in the juice of half a lime and stir through. Season with salt and pepper and finally stir in a little finely chopped red chili and tomato.  

Your kit will come with a just-ok salsa, so if you want it spicy, throw in some chili. If you want it chunky, stir in some fresh tomato. We are a generation of supermarket lovers and these prescribed dinner shortcuts scare us into thinking we can't play with them. We can!  

The result

So we've got slow cooked shredded fajita chicken, fresh guacamole - and I included some leftover watercress and a nice bit of grated cheese in each tortilla. I might have cheated, but I feel anything but guilty.