I had a Pampered Chef party at my home last Friday, and it was a lot of fun. For the party, a Pampered Chef consultant came over and demonstrated the Pampered Chef’s cooking tools and products. For my guests, she made a great chicken fajita recipe in my kitchen’s microwave in only 14 minutes. She used the Pampered Chef deep covered baker to make the dinner recipe.
I was quite impressed – the Pampered Chef covered stoneware casserole dish that she used made the chicken nice and juicy – not rubbery, like one would expect from the microwave. I immediately wanted to order the Pampered Chef deep covered baker she used, which retails at $85. (Up until Friday, I didn’t have any casserole dishes that were safe to use in the microwave.) But I held off, because even with the discount I’d get for hosting the Pampered Chef party, the casserole dish would still be pretty pricey.
An Inexpensive Find
Well, I just happened to be shopping at Target (one of my favorite stores) yesterday, and I came across the Corningware 2.5 Qt. White Ceramic Casserole dish for just over $20. The white Corningware casserole dish matches my white dishware, and with its clean lines, would be great to use for entertaining.
I figured the Corningware dish would be perfect for making the Pampered Chef fajita recipe, since it can be used in the oven or microwave. Even better is that with my Target charge card, I get an extra 5 % off my purchases, so I would get more than $1 off the dish. (Every dollar counts!)
So I bought the Corningware microwave dish, and also picked up a package of thin-sliced chicken breast and a red and a green pepper. When I got home, I washed out my new casserole dish, and began preparing dinner.
Quick and Simple Microwave Dinner Recipe
First, I rinsed the chicken and then placed it at the bottom of the casserole dish. I then sliced up some onion and peppers, and placed those on top.To finish it off, I squeezed a garlic clove on top using my garlic press, squeezed a bit of lemon over the ingredients, and seasoned my ingredients with some taco seasonings that I had on hand.
What my Pampered Chef-style chicken fajita recipe looked like before I put it in the microwave.
I covered the Corningware casserole dish with its lid, put the whole thing in the microwave, and warmed it for 10 minutes on my microwave’s regular setting. Just 10 minutes later, I had all the fillings I needed to make chicken fajitas!
What my Pampered Chef-style chicken fajita fillings looked like after I took them out of the microwave.
Easy Dinner
When the kids came home, I chopped my cooked chicken and vegetables, and rolled the fillings in some tortillas with some shredded cheddar cheese. I warmed each fajita in the microwave for about 40 seconds. (Unfortunately, because my kids were so eager for dinner, I forgot to take photos of the finished product!)
One of my daughters liked the fajitas so much, that she ate three of them! I added a bit more flavor to my own fajita by adding some chopped cilantro to my fillings. (The kids don’t like cilantro much – at least not now.) To make my husband’s fajitas a bit spicier (he loves spicy food), I added chopped jalapeno cheese to his fajitas.
Money Saved
I was happy that I found a way to cook the Pampered Chef recipe without springing for the cookware – which while nice, I could do without (at least for now). But, I did order some other fun things from the Pampered Chef consultant (like Pampered Chef’s brownie pan), so I will be looking forward to receiving my order! Now, I’ll be searching the web for other Pampered Chef microwave recipes that I can make in my new casserole dish!