Where I kick my a@* with deliciousness

Yes, it's true. Tonight, quite by chance, I kicked my a@* with deliciousness. And I'll need to apologize in advance, because I didn't measure anything or even take many pictures, because frankly I wasn't sure it would be very good.

Let me back up for just a minute. Right after I got home, I quickly changed into workout clothes before I could think too hard about all the stuff I still needed to do, and I hit the trail along the river. I'm going to be honest with you- I'm trying to lose a little weight, because in the past few years since I've stopped running, some of it has crept back on. It can be stealthy that way. And since I did a pretty good job being active while I was on vacation, I wanted to keep up with the momentum. It was probably only about 2 miles, out and back, but at least it gave me time to think.

Pretty much the whole way out I was thinking about work. Today was my first day back in a week, and there was plenty to think about. Then on the way back, among other things, I thought about what I was going to make for dinner. I had chicken, tomatoes, and avocado, and a red pepper that I wanted to use.


By the time I walked in the door, I had an idea. I cut the pepper into chunks, sliced the tomato, and portobella mushroom, then I cut one chicken breast into strips. For seasoning, I sprinkled Penzey's Adobo, ground Mexican chilies, salt, and lime. On everything. Liberally.

Then I sauteed the veggies in some oil for about 5 minutes, and pulled them out of the pan.

To the same pan, I added the chicken and browned it. While the chicken was cooking I scooped out one avocado into a bowl and added the same seasoning mix, with an extra shake of salt, and the juice from half a lime. Then mashed it together to make a super quick guacamole. Here it is pre-mashed.

Meanwhile, the bottom of the cast iron pan was getting pretty sticky with cooked spices, so I deglazed the pan with a little Redbridge- it's a sorghum beer that I just happened to have handy. Like, in my hand. I let that cook down a bit, and checked the chicken to make sure it was cooked all the way through, then pulled it off the heat.

Then I assembled it into blue corn taco shells (you could use any tortilla or taco shell). Chicken first, then mushrooms, peppers, tomato, and a healthy serving of guac to top it off. It didn't look pretty, but it sure smelled good, and I was hungry.

And that's when I realized that it kicked my a@* off with good flavors. Only not literally, 'cause clearly I still was able to sit down, and thoroughly enjoy it. I really dig it when stuff works.