Stuffed Peppers

We never once had stuffed peppers for dinner when I was growing up. Never. Ever. The first time I ever saw a stuffed pepper was in the college dining center, and lots of friends commented on how much they dreaded it when their moms announced that they'd be having stuffed peppers for dinner. So...I'm not exactly sure what posessed me to try stuffed peppers in the first place! We've had them several times (one version is posted here), and this is my favorite recipe. I like that this one doesn't have any tomatoes, and I love the cornmeal topping!

This meal is really quite simple to put together, but there's a lot of preparation involved, most of which is chopping. (And by the way, if you have a good, sharp knife, it makes prep time a lot less tedious! Always remember, a dull knife is a dangerous knife.) There's also rice to prepare. What I'm telling you is this: this is not a quick meal to throw together. Don't even attempt it on a night that you're super-busy or super-tired. Save it for a day when you have plenty of time, and it will be well worth it. The leftovers heat up beautifully, and lots of times I have filling left over. When that happens, I portion it into ramekins, add the cornmeal topping, and bake. That way I have little pre-portioned lunches to just grab out of the fridge. And a bonus: it's healthy, too!

Stuffed Peppers

Adapted slightly from Heather's Website

4 medium green bell peppers

8 oz. lean ground beef

1 1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

2 tsp. minced garlic

1 1/2 cup cooked brown rice

1/2 tsp. salt, plus more for seasoning

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning

1/2 tsp Greek seasoning (I use Cavender's)

1/4 cup chopped green onions (I use the whole thing)

1 tbs. chopped parsley leaves

2 tbs. plain cornmeal

2 tbs. grated parmesan

4 tsp. canola oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cook brown rice.

Cut off the top quarter of each bell pepper and reserve. Scoop the seeds and veins out from the inside of each pepper and discard. Set bell pepper shells aside. Removed and discard the stems from each bell pepper top. Dice enough of the bell pepper tops to make 1/2 cup. Set aside.

In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, brown the ground beef until cooked through, about 4 minutes. Add the onions, 1/2 cup diced bell pepper, and celery. Saute for 4 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the rice and mix well. Season with salt, pepper, and Greek seasoning. Cook for about 1 imnute. Remove from the heat and stir in the green onions and parsley. Season the insides of each bell pepper shell with salt and pepper, to taste. Spoon the rice mixutre into the bell peppers.

In a small bowl, combine the cornmeal and cheese. Season with a pinch of Greek seasoning and mix well. Sprinkle the crust over each pepper. Top each crust with 1 tsp. of canola oil and place the peppers into an 8-inch baking dish or pan. Add just enough water to cover the bottom, about 1/3 cup. Bake for 25-30 inutes, or until the tops are crust and brown and the filling is warmed through. Serve hot.

Chicken Barley Bake

It was another quick and easy dinner night, and another brand new recipe. I've mentioned before that I went on a whole grain kick awhile back, which left me with Mason jars full of "exotic" grains (at least they're exotic to me): pearled barley, whole wheat couscous, bulgur wheat, steel cut oats, etc. I'm slowly but surely working my way through my supply, and it's been exciting to find new recipes and try new things. Tonight's recipe features pearled barley, which is very tender and mild. I think it's kind of like puffy, chewy oatmeal, but in a good way.

For this recipe, I combined my pearled barley with onions, carrots, garlic, chicken broth, and poultry seasoning. I sweated the onions, garlic, and carrots, then added my barley to the skillet, just to toast it a tiny bit. I added the chicken broth and poultry seasoning, then brought the whole thing to a boil. The barley mixture is dumped into a 9x9-inch pan, some skinless chicken thighs are plopped on top, and then the whole mess goes into the oven for about an hour. Then, you get this:
It looks kind of boring, and it doesn't have over-the-top flavor, but it was good. It could use some doctoring up, which is what I plan to try in the future. I'd like to add some broccoli and spinach to the barley mixture. It also needed some salt, and next time I'll certainly add some Greek seasoning. That should help.

Why have I not been using chicken thighs for the past three years? I've always thought that I didn't like dark meat, but I've discovered that it's really my favorite! There'll definitely be more chicken thigh purchases in my future...and they're cheaper than chicken breasts. More flavor for less money...it's a winner!

If you're interested in introducing whole grains into your diet, this would be a great place to start. I actually found pearled barley in my regular grocery store (Kroger), instead of having to go to Whole Foods! Kroger keeps the pearled barley with the dried beans, just in case you need a little help finding it.

Chicken Barley Bake

Adapted from a recipe from Heather's Site

1 cup chopped onion

3/4 cup chopped carrots

3/4 cup chicken broth

3/4 cup pearled barley

1/4 tsp. chicken bouillon

1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 chicken thighs, skinned (1.5 lbs)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, sweat onions, carrots, and garlic, just until the onions are translucent. Add barley and toast for about a minute (don't let it burn!). Add broth, barley, bouillon, and poultry seasoning. Bring mixture to a boil, then pour into a 9x9-inch baking dish. Arrange chicken thighs on top of mixture. Season chicken thighs with salt/pepper and any other seasonings you'd like. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 45 minutes. Uncover chicken and continue to bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Stuffed Peppers

I haven't been keeping up with my blog like I'd like to. It's been kind of neglected for the last couple of weeks, but let me tell you why. David and I are in the process of building our house, and in the evenings after work, we go over there and clean up for an hour or two so the construction people/drywall men/etc. can work the next day and not have to walk around/on/through a bunch of debris. This means that our meals haven't been quite as exciting lately, and when they have been, they've been made after dark. And that means that the picture quality isn't great, but I'm figuring out a few spots in the house that will allow me to take a good picture. Tonight, we had stuffed peppers:

First, let me say that these weren't made using my favorite stuffed pepper recipe. I was in a super-big hurry this morning and couldn't find that recipe, but I did find this one. I ran around the house gathering ingredients out of the freezer and sticking them in the fridge in hopes that they'd be thawed out by the time I got home, so that I could assemble the peppers before going to the new house to clean. (But they weren't.) So, we had Ellie Krieger's Stuffed Peppers. They were okay, but I like my other recipe better. She says I should have used red peppers, which I like better, but they were over a dollar each. The green peppers were 88 cents each. That was an easy choice. I like the fact that she used bulgur, spinach, and zucchini in the filling, but there just wasn't enough flavor. If I make these again, I'll have to jazz these up a bit. I'd probably liberally season both the filling and the insides of the peppers with Cavender's Greek Seasoning. I think that would help a lot.

I do like the feta cheese that she suggested I sprinkle on top, but I don't think I used enough. The topping on my favorite stuffed peppers (the one that I can't find the recipe for) includes cornmeal and olive oil. It is delicious...crunchy, corny, and salty. Much better than tomatoes and feta cheese. But that's another post. If you like stuffed peppers, these are definitely worth a try, but they just aren't my favorite. Here's the recipe if you'd like to try them...

Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers

Ellie Krieger

1 lb. lean ground beef

10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 medium zucchini, coarsley grated (about 2 cups)

1 small onion, minced (about 1 cup)

1/2 cup bulgur

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. salt

freshly ground black pepper

3 red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, cores and ribs removed

2 (14.5 oz.) cans low-sodium stewed tomatoes, finely chopped

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the beef, spinach, zucchini, onion, bulgur, egg, oregano, salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Mix until throughly combined.

Arrange the pepper halves cut side up in a 9x13-inch baking dish and fill each pepper half with the meat mixture. Pour the tomatoes over the peppers and sprinkle with the feta cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until the meat mixture is completely cooked and the peppers are tender, about 25 minutes longer.

Now, I'll leave you with a picture of the kitchen. We've still got a ways to go, but it's looking better every day!

Beef and Bulgur Casserole

A couple of months ago, I got on a whole grain kick. We'd already made the switch to whole-wheat pasta, which wasn't too tough. Then, I switched us to brown rice instead of white rice. Again, no big deal. They were easy substitutions that didn't require much thought. Then I heard about things like pearled barley, quinoa, steel cut oats, and bulgur. I didn't have any idea about what to make with them, but it sounded like a challenge. During one of our trips to the "big city" of Louisville, David and I stopped by Whole Foods, because the Kroger and Wal-Mart in our town don't have many whole grains outside of whole-wheat pasta and brown rice. I was amazed by the bulk food section at Whole Foods. I didn't even know what half of the stuff was, but I was in awe of the different granola blends. And then I saw where you can grind your own peanut butter. WHAT?! Incredible. Anyway, I stuck to the whole grains list and got a bag each of quinoa, bulgur, and pearled barley.
Then I got the stuff home and thought, "What in the hairy am I gonna do with this stuff?!" Once again, the Internet came to my rescue. I found several yummy recipes for ways to use my fancy, exotic grains, and one of my favorites is the one I'm sharing with you tonight: Beef and Bulgur Casserole. I absolutely love this stuff! I try to lighten it up some by using extra-lean ground beef and reduced-fat cheese, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything. There's a lot of sodium in the recipe, so if that's a concern for you, you'll want to use reduced-sodium tomatoes and broth. But I like things salty, so this is right up my alley.
This was definitely a great meal to help usher in my favorite season...fall! The leaves are changing and there's a little chill in the air, so it's time to dust off all my hearty fall and winter recipes. Yum!

Beef and Bulgur Casserole

Heather's Recipe Site

1 1/2 lbs. extra-lean ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

14.5 oz Italian diced tomatoes, drained

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 cup bulgur, uncooked

2 cups water

1 Tbs. fresh parsley (or 1/2 Tbs. dried)

2 tsp. beef bouillon granules

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. oregano

1/4 tsp. pepper

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook ground beef and onion in large skillet, stirring frequently, until beef is browned. Drain. Stir in remaining ingredients (except cheese). Pour into ungreased 2.5 quart casserole dish. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake 45 minutes, or until bulgur is tender. Stir in cheese, and sprinkle a little more on top for good measure. Serve hot.

Shrimp Couscous

If you've been wandering around The Sweet Life for very long, you probably know that I started this blog in order to participate with Tuesdays With Dorie, which is an Internet baking group. And if you've stuck around lately, you've noticed that I haven't participated in Tuesdays With Dorie for about a month. And that's because I was beginning to see my weight inch up the scale little by little. So here at The Sweet Life, David and I have been cutting back a little bit.

Generally speaking, when you think about cutting back, you probably think about eating lots of chicken, and maybe some fish. That's what we do around here...we eat a lot of chicken, but sometimes I get tired of it. Like right now. So tonight, I tried out a new shrimp recipe, which turned out to be delicious. It's not that exciting to look at, but here are a couple of pictures, anyway...

This picture turned out really bright. It looks nice...clean and healthy.

This one was taken about 12 inches away from the other photo, and look at how different the light is! This one seems a little more "moody."

Anyway...enough with the pictures. Here's the recipe!

Shrimp Couscous

Core and More

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbs. olive oil

1 zucchini, chopped

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 tsp. thyme

1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 cup couscous

salt & pepper, to taste

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add zucchini and saute about 1 minute or so. Add chicken broth, thympe, red pepper flakes, and shrimp. Bring to a boil. Add couscous; remove from heat, cover, and fluff after 5 minutes, or when broth is absorbed.