Cheap Steak Fajitas

I tried to be clever with the name and play on the word cheapskate, but I’m not entirely sure it works.  These fajitas, however, definitely work.  They’re delicious!  They’re also ridiculously easy to make.

I’ll just go ahead and be honest with you.  The idea for these came from failure.  Lots and lots of failure.  I cannot make beef stew.  I’m not sure what my issue is, but it just doesn’t work for me.  I’ve tried various recipes, and various combinations of recipes.  The best result I’ve had is mostly edible, which is not the description you really want for your meal. 

I have finally decided to give up on making beef stew.  We’ve suffered enough.  Nick was elated when I informed him that I was officially giving up on making beef stew.  He was kind enough to say that I make plenty of other things extremely well, and we’d be fine without beef stew, but his initial reaction was definitely relief.  I can’t blame him. 

Unfortunately, I had purchased a gigantic package of stew beef at Sam’s Club before I decided that making delicious (or even good) beef stew is not something I am capable of.  I froze it in one pound packages, and decided I’d come up with other ways to use it.  This is one of my alternatives, and I’m happy to say that it’s as good as my beef stew is bad. 

Here’s what you need:

1 pound stew beef, cut into bite sized pieces
1 -2 bell peppers, chopped
1 -2 onions, chopped
1 package (1.2 oz) fajita seasoning mix
1.5 tsp lime juice
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp tequila

The tequila isn’t in the picture because I didn’t think about adding it until I started thinking about having a margarita with my fajitas, and had already taken the picture.  I think you can probably leave it out if you don’t happen to have tequila on hand, but I do think it probably does help to tenderize the meat a little bit.  It’s so good with the tequila, too, so I highly recommend using it.

Combine all of the ingredients in a small slow cooker, and cook on Low for 5 -7 hours, until meat is cooked through, and the vegetables are tender.

It’s going to look a little dry when you mix everything, but resist the temptation to add more liquid. 

There’s a fair amount of sauce with these, so they’re really good served with rice to soak up some of the sauce. 

Serve with any combination of rice, beans, tortillas, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, etc.

Enjoy!