Stuffed Peppers

I went to the grocery store today in search of fresh fruits and veggies. I walked away with 4 peppers that were on the "quick sale" rack. While driving home, I realized I could make a stuffed pepper for dinner.

two servings of rice ~3-4cups cooked?
1 cup black beans
1 cup corn (I used frozen)
1/2 of 28 oz can of chopped tomatoes
~2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt (I probably could have put more in)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder (propbably could have used fresh)
2 green onions
Combine together all ingredients until mixed.
Cut the tops off 4 peppers, I used yellow in this case.
I chopped up the good parts from the "top" and added them into the rice mixture.
I put a large pinch of shredded cheddar cheese at the bottom of the pepper, then added a spoonful of rice mixture, a little more cheese and then filled up the pepper with the rice mix. Repeat for all 4 peppers.
Place all 4 peppers on a cookie sheet and bake at 375deg F for 30-40 min or until the peppers are soft.
sprinkle a little more cheese on top and put under the broiler on low and broil until the cheese is melted.

Palak Dal - aka Spinach and Lentils

I made a Spinach and Lentil dish (aka Palak Dal) on Monday night this week. I found the recipe from a Google search when I knew we were both in the mood for Indian food and I had some chard to eat up. It turned out lovely! I followed the recipe fairly closely, my only substitutions were that I used red lentils, chard instead of spinach, and low-fat sour cream that I had on hand instead of the heavy cream.

Picture to come... :)

The Week in Review

Monday we had Lasagna!

Tuesday we had leftover Pizza and some lasagna.

Wednesday I made Chiliquiles - post coming soon!

Thursday we had Chinese take-out. I tried something new (steamed veggies and tofu) and liked it. It didn't taste like everything else on the menu. At first when I dished out the veggies and tofu, I was a little worried. As much as I want to be healthy, it just seemed too bland, but then I found the sauce that was supposed to go on top. It was from the "Lighter Side" menu, so I'm guessing they don't put the sauce on because people want to control how much salt/sugar/oil they are adding with the sauce - and control I did.

What to cook tonight...? I feel something soupy coming on.

Lasagna!

So, I've mentioned the Lasagna I make before. Last night it was on the menu - freshly made, no leftovers. I started making the recipe from Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin when I first got the cookbook. I liked that the noodles didn't need to be boiled/pre-cooked, because, you know, I'm lazy!

Tonight's version had Trader Joe's soy chorizo in the sauce:
32oz can of crushed tomatoes (Cento Brand)
1/2 cup of red wine - I didn't measure it, but poured in the last of a bottle, so it was probably closer to 3/4 cup - I love my food with alcohol!
1-1/2 cup water
package of Trader Joe's soy chorizo
1 teaspoon oregano
3 cloves of garlic chopped
I also chopped up all of the ripened tomatoes that I had (from clearing out all the green tomatoes in the garden).

to prepare the ricotta mixture, mix together:
2 cups ricotta (I used whole milk this time, but usually I use skim/low fat)
2 eggs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
When my mom made lasagna growing up, she used cottage cheese instead of ricotta. I liked it but I've since converted to the more traditional. I've also discovered that I really like the results when I use Trader Joe's lasagna noodles. I didn't have them for this one, and I can tell the difference. This particular recipe uses about 16 oz of shredded mozzarella cheese and I put Ebon to work shredding a block that we got at the market - all the shredded mozzarella cheese was sold out - womp womp.

Now the layering begins:
Pour enough sauce in a 9"x13" casserole dish to cover the bottom, add first layer of noodles. Spread on ricotta mixture on the noodles, then add more sauce to cover the layer. Add cheese.
Noodles
ricotta
sauce
mozzarella cheese
Noodles
ricotta
sauce
mozzarella cheese
Noodle
Sauce


Cover the pan with aluminum foil and put into a pre-heated 350degF oven for about 50-60 minutes, then cook uncovered for about 10-15 minutes more. Here's where I put the last layer of cheese on it because I've found if I add it before putting the foil on, the cheese just gets stuck to the foil - no fun! So bake until the cheese is golden and bubbly.
This is what happens when you don't let it sit after taking it out of the oven (a lot of oozing of sauce going on at the left):

So be patient and let it sit for another 10 minutes or so. You'll thank me later.

What's your favorite lasagna recipe? Are you a cottage cheese or ricotta cheese devotee?

Home made pizza - sorta

Last night I made pizza using our pizza stone for the first time.
I used a crust we purchased and here's Ebon's handy work for the first pizza:

Our go-to toppings are green peppers and onions, so that was one of the pizzas. The second was a margherita of sorts - I used defrosted basil cubes (from the garden) and tomatoes.

It was about 1/4 of a large yellow onion and about 1/4 to 1/2 of a green pepper. In this case it was frozen from the CSA earlier this season. Ebon wasn't a fan of how it tasted, but I couldn't tell the difference.

Here are the leftovers!

The stone definitely helped - it was pre-heated about 30 minutes before using it. The margherita pizza was a bit soggy in the middle because the basil cubes had a lot of water in them, the tomatoes exuded some water, and I added a drizzling of olive oil, which I'm sure didn't help. However, it was still quite tasty!
They baked at 450degF for about 10-20 min - I just watched to make sure the cheese was bubbly and getting brown.

Leftover soup - with a pic

Ok, the weekend seems much easier to take pictures, so here is what I had for dinner last night, the Lentil and Chard soup with Barley we had earlier this week:

It was still good heated up on the stove!

True Belgian Waffle attempt

After our visit to the Food Truck Throwdown, Ebon found a recipe for one kind of the waffles we had: Gaufres de Liege. This time I followed the recipe to the letter.

I would say they turned out decently. They were crunchy on the outside and mostly soft inside and the turbinado sugar helped with some of the crunch. For the effort, though, I probably won't be making them again. My tried and true waffle recipe - which is really a pancake batter - from miss Betty Crocker works well enough and whips up in less than 5 minutes, and I have it memorized by now!
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
combine in a bowl
1 cup milk (or buttermilk)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg 
beat the egg into the wet ingredients and combine with the dry ingredients

What's your favorite breakfast food? Do you have a tried and true pancake or waffle recipe?