Stuffed Green Peppers

Made this the other day...it was YUMMY! It does take at least an hour to make, but half of that time it's in the oven. It's very easy and mild flavored. Kelley and I loved it!

Stuffed Green Peppers

6 green bell peppers (we used 4 large instead with the same amount of filling)

salt to taste

1 pound ground beef

1/3 C chopped onion

salt and pepper to taste

1 (14.5 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 C uncooked rice (probably have to use white or it will take longer to cook)

1/2 C water (I had to use almost 3 times this much to keep it from burning the pan!)

1 C shredded Cheddar cheese

2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed tomato soup (I used just a single can of tomato sauce instead)

1. In a large skillet, saute beef and onions for 5 mintes, or until beef is browned. Drain off excess fat and season with salt and pepper. Stir in the tomatoes, rice, water and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, or until rice is tender. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese.

2. While the beef/rice mixture is cooking, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cut the tops off the peppers, and remove the seeds. Cook peppers in boiling water for 5 minutes and drain. Sprinkle salt inside each pepper, and set aside.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Stuff each pepper with the beef and rice mixture and place peppers open side up in a baking dish. In a medium bowl, combine tomato soup with just enough water to make the soup a gravy consistency. Pour over the peppers. (I didn't use water with the tomato sauce, just poured it right from the can on top of the peppers).

4. Bake covered for 25 to 35 minutes until heated through and cheese is melted and bubbly.

I have also in the past used this basic recipe to make a CASSEROLE. I did this when I either had just pieces of peppers left over from fajitas or something or didn't have enough green peppers. Instead of stuffing the green peppers I cut them into chunks and mix everything together, topping with cheese. I have also added other colors of peppers for variety and flavor as well as potatoes (cut into chunks) if it simply needed bulking up.

Fruit Gelato

I found the recipe for this here and tried it tonight, it was really good and so simple!

Ingredients

* 12 oz. bag of frozen fruit of choice
* 1/3 cup of sugar
* 1/2 cup of heavy cream

Whir them all together in a food processor or blender until it's completely smooth.

Wow, easy huh?

This can be served right away at the consistency of a soft serve ice cream, or you can stick it in a container in the freezer for a couple of hours to harden, we weren't patient enough for that, we ate it right away and it was so good!

I actually used about 18 oz of fruit (a bag of frozen strawberries and a banana I had peeled and tossed in a zipper bag into the freezer a month or two ago so that it could get used instead of going bad and being tossed out)
With 18 oz of fruit I decided to do 3/4 of a cup of cream and about 1/2 cup of sugar. My blender was having a little bit of a tough time (I think a food processor might do it easier but I don't have one) so I added a dash more cream part way through to get all of the fruit blended.

Chili and Rice

Ok - So nothing fancy here girls.  Want a simple meal with your protein, grain and veggies in one shot?  Chili and Rice.  I learned this trick in Hawaii. I just use canned chili and mix it with some rice.  Sprinkle some cheese on top if you would like.  Maybe you all know about this, but I had no idea it would be good until I went to BYU-H.  If you really want more veggies than the beans in the chili just add some carrot sticks, salad or something simple on the side.  Try it...see if you like it.  This is also a good dish to use brown rice in.  Even if you don't like the taste/texture it's basically taken over by the chili.  Let me know what you think...

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

I was in a hurry tonight and had some things I needed to use, so threw this together improved from a "Saving Dinner" recipe.  It turned out really good.  And for what it is, it was actually very easy.  It took me no more than 30 minutes from start to table time (excluding thawing the chicken).  That included getting the Garlic Broccoli ready to go with it.  (Which if you haven't tried that you HAVE to!  It is SO good.)

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (I used 2 large breasts, cut in three pieces each and it more than fed my family of 4)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Italian Bread crumbs (I just had normal bread crumbs and added some italian seasoning)

Olive Oil

Egg Noodles (sorry about the lack of amounts...I just cooked enough to feed my family!)

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1/2 to 1 cup of your favorite cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium heat.  Dip your chicken into egg batter first, then coat with bread crumbs.  Add to skillet and cook through.  (I turned mine several times to try and prevent burning.  I think I had the heat on too high though - medium high - because they still were "blackened".  I thought they were good still, but Joey was a bit bugged).

While the chicken in cooking put your Garlic Broccoli in the oven and cook your egg noodles.

When the chicken is done, put one breast on top of a bed of noodles.  Cover with Spaghetti Sauce and sprinkle with cheese.  (The original recipe called for Mozzarella and Parmesan.  I had Colby Jack on hand, so that's what I used!)

This was another one of those recipes that called for a transfer to the oven after just browning the chicken (which would probably solve the blackening problem), but I just didn't have the time or desire to do extra dishes!  Besides the broccoli was in the oven :)

OK, so my proud moment of the day....for lunch I had attempted to make "Easy Peasy Tomato Soup" from a recipe I got off this blog.  I had to make some substitutions though.  Her recipe called for homemade veggie stock, which I didn't have time to make.  So instead I used Chicken Broth and boiled some mixed veggies for the puree.  As a result the "tomato soup" was looking pretty much like puke (although I'm sure it tasted fine), and I didn't think I'd have real success serving it to the daycare kids.  So I also added a can of tomato sauce and one of tomato paste.  My blender isn't working real well these days either though so it wasn't as pureed as it should have been.  That said, most of the daycare kids didn't love it.  I actually did like it, but after lunch thought...is it even worth saving the rest of this?  Joey doesn't like tom soup anyway, and is pretty picky about stuff so I didn't think he'd even try it.  Then the thought...chicken parmesan came to me.  And I remember hearing about that book where she hides veggies in things like bread and sauces by pureeing them.  So where did I get my spaghetti sauce today?  I used the leftover soup seasoned with italian seasoning and garlic salt.  I thought it was great.  I didn't ask Joey because I was in a hurry to get out the door and he was grumpy because his bread crumbs were charred....but I was very proud of myself and felt very frugal.  There are few things I hate more than throwing perfectly good food (or what was good food three days ago before you forgot about it!) in the trash.  Yeah for me!