Turkey Stuffed Peppers

In this post I talked about clearing out my pantry and trying to use up any processed, boxed, go-to meals. One of the things that I had always turned to was Rice-A-Roni for side dishes. This recipe is a product of using the rice in a way that makes it more than just a boxed side. Besides also being a recipe you can use with regular rice and lots of seasonings, it tastes just as great with the Rice-A-Roni. I also use turkey because I don't eat a lot of red meat but it can be easily substituted with ground beef or black beans. What you get in the end is a filling, delicious, and guilt-free meal that is super easy to make!

What You'll Need:

3 large bell peppers

1 box of Mexican Style Rice-A-Roni

3 Tablespoons of vegetable oil

1/2 of an onion

1 pound of ground turkey 

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 teaspoon garlic powder

cheese

sour cream (optional)

What To Do: 

1. Start by preparing the rice per the directions on the box. You'll want to have this ready so you can add it to the turkey when it's done cooking. 

*If you use regular rice cook it beforehand by boiling it in chicken or veggie broth and season with cumin, garlic powder, and chili powder. 

2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with non-stick foil. Wash and cut your peppers in half (long-way). Use a spoon (or your hand) to pull out the center of the bell pepper and dispose of the seeds. Place them on the baking sheet and set aside. 

*This recipe gives two people three halves or three people two with a side.

3. In a large pot or pan heat up your oil. Brown your turkey for about 5 minutes. While that is cooking, chop your onion and then add it to the turkey. Add a the cumin and garlic powder and let the meat finish cooking. Drain the meat if there's a lot of liquid so it doesn't make the rice soggy. 

4. Add the cooked rice to the turkey mixture and mix it all together. 

5. Fill the peppers with the turkey and rice mix and cook for 10 minutes. Add cheese to the tops of the peppers and then bake for another 3 minutes so the cheese can melt. 

6. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and salsa and ENJOY!

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

One of my favorite things about breakfast is that it's so versatile! Whether you're in the mood for something sweet, savory, healthy, indulgent, or a mix of everything you can get it for breakfast. Now, I love pancakes as much as the next person, but they're one of those foods that always leaves me feeling overly full. Who wants to start their day that way? (Probably the same people who would actually be willing to give up pancakes!). I decided to go for a healthier version of pancake that has no flour, no sugar, and no guilt. I got it off Pinterest a long time ago and was drawn to it again after going through some of my old pins - and having a craving for pancakes. These pancakes are a healthy alternative that don't actually taste like an alternative. These are the best option for those days that you feel like a big breakfast without wrecking the rest of your day!

What You'll Need:

2 eggs

1 banana (mashed up)

1/2 cup of oats

1/4 cup of applesauce

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

What To Do:

1. In a food processor, grind up your oats until it turns into a fine powder. I used a Nutribullet because I have a special blade for this sort of thing but a magic bullet would work too.

2. Mix all of your ingredients in a bowl, being certain to fully incorporate the oat powder. 

3. Spray a skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Ladle about 1/3 of a cup of the batter into the pan. Once bubbles start to form on the non-cooked side it should be okay to flip.

*If you want to add things to the batter (i.e. fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.) then you can add it to the raw side of the pancake before you flip it. 

4. Once the other side of the pancake is golden brown, serve immediately. 

5. You can use regular maple syrup (like I did) or you can garnish with fruit, walnuts, or whipped cream. Serve with some eggs and turkey bacon (or "Fakon" if that's still a thing) and you have yourself a fabulous, guilt-free, breakfast! ENJOY!

Granola Clusters

Raise your hand if you're still keeping up with your New Year's resolution. Be honest, now. I have to admit that I got a slow start to mine but I'm still going. After all these years I've finally added the "eating healthy" resolution to my life. It's all part of making a better, happier me. I adapted this recipe from Cookies and Cups after needing more healthy snack and dessert options. Nothing is worse than working out or doing really good with your daily diet and feeling like you ruined everything with an unhealthy snack. Enter GRANOLA CLUSTERS! These little clusters are perfectly crunchy and just sweet enough and fill you up quicker than other junk food snacks! My favorite part was that even though there are quite a bit of ingredients, this recipe is so customizable that you could mix and match the ingredients with things that you have. Here's to us and our New Year's Resolutions!

What You'll Need:

2 1/2 cups oats (not instant)

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup dried cherries

1 cup flaked coconut

2 cups corn flakes (lightly crushed)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 chopped walnuts

1 beaten egg white

What To Do:

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

2. Line a large cookie sheet with non-stick foil or parchment paper and set aside.

3. In a large bowl mix all of your ingredients together. It's sort of a running joke between Mike and I that I never mix things in large enough bowls. So, my friends, use a LARGE bowl because there are a lot of ingredients.

*Spray your measuring cup with a little cooking spray in order to get all of the honey out of it.

4. Put the mixture on you cookie sheet and spread it around evenly.

5. Bake the granola for 25 minutes then turn off your oven but keep your granola in there until the oven cools. This was a great tip from Shelly (author of Cookies and Cups) that makes all the difference in how crunchy your granola gets.

**Her blog also has good tips on how to get less crunchy granola if that's not really your thing.

***As I mentioned, there are a lot of things that would go great in these. I happened to only have walnuts and dried cherries, because I love to snack on them, but cranberries, raisins, almonds, chocolate chips, or a mix of all of these would be a great addition. 

6. Once it's cooled start to break off pieces. The bottom will form a sort of crust that keeps everything together and is insanely delicious.

7. Save the mix in a air-tight container and enjoy throughout your day!

Real Strawberry Lemonade

This is something I'm absolutely ecstatic about! This was completely conceptualized by me and the boyfriend. Here's how it started...

I have a subscription to Sunset Magazine (a magazine for living on the west coast) and my first issue was the August issue. They had a great spread about melons and different things to make with all of the different varieties (that's another post). There was a recipe for Summer Fizzies (yes I tried this too- recipe coming later) which are basically pureed melon, frozen into ice cubes and served with club soda. Even though these were super good and refreshing, they weren't sweet enough for me. I tried cantaloupe, watermelon and even mango. If you've ever tried it you know club soda doesn't have a lot of taste either, so we tried putting the ice in 7 Up soda. Mike and I were trying to think of other flavors and he suggested strawberry because they're sweet and have a recognizable taste. I happened to wonder out loud if instead of 7 Up, lemonade would be better? We were in total agreement that it would.

A couple days later I bought lemons and strawberries. Yes I bought lemons. You didn't really think I was going to use just-add-water lemonade did you? If I was going to do this, I was going to do it right - and Mike was in full support.

What You'll Need:

8 lemons

1 C Sugar

1 C Water

2 cartons of Strawberries
6 C Water

Start by getting your sous chef to juice all of the lemons. I don't know a whole lot about juicing because I never make fresh juice, but the manual juicer Mike's mom got us really helped. With all of the lemons, we got a little over a cup of juice.

While Mike was handling the manual labor, I made the simple syrup. I really recommend making a simple syrup for your lemonade instead of just adding sugar because it won't sink to the bottom the way granulated sugar will (I found this out when I was six), and you'll end up with a consistent sweetness. A simple syrup is really easy to make too, I promise. Over medium heat, add your one cup of water and your one cup of sugar. Stir frequently until the sugar dissolves.

When it's done take it off the heat and start your strawberries for the puree. Make sure they are washed. If you can, use a spray instead of the stream on your sink faucet. You don't want them sitting in any extra water. If not, no big deal.

Cut the tops of your strawberries off and any nasty parts. I know they're getting pureed but that's not good eats. You should also cut them into quarters, they puree quicker if the pieces are smaller. 

Add 2 tablespoons of sugar. This is optional though, there is already going to be a lot of sugar in this drink so you don't need to add more. Now, puree. Halfway through I always get a long spoon and stir what I'm pureeing to help it along. At this point add a 1/3 - 1/2 cup of water. Continue pureeing.

When it's done you'll have wonderfully pureed strawberries. With this the possibilities are endless! But for now, we put them in ice cube trays to freeze. Don't bother straining them. Mike had a problem with the seeds being there. I reminded him that he eats strawberries WITH the seeds all the time, and we moved on. Trust me, you won't even notice them. Mike agrees. 

You should have about two to three cups of puree, depending on your strawberries and the amount of water you added. So you'll need two ice trays. Fill them up like you would with water and put them in the freezer. We went out after we put ours in the freezer so they were able to freeze for a few hours.

Now it's time to show the lemonade some love. Pour your pure lemon juice into a 2 quart pitcher and all of your simple syrup. Like I said, if you feel like this is too much sugar only add some at first. You can add more after you add some water depending on how sweet you want it (you can always add, you can never subtract). We used half of the syrup at first.

Add a cup of water at a time and taste so you can monitor the lemon-sugar ratio to what you want. We ended up using 6 cups of water and all of the simple syrup. If you don't like pulp, use a little strainer to take it out, it floats to the top so it'll be easy. Cover and put in the fridge to get cold.

So worth the wait...

While we waited we found things to do then decided to go out and pass time...

A few hours later....

Get out a glass and and put several strawberry ice cubes in it. Fill the rest of the glass with lemonade.

After a little while of letting your cold drink sit the strawberry starts to dissolve into the lemonade. What you get is a magical mix of lemon and strawberry. The best part is that you get a whole pitcher and you know exactly what's in it. You can make as much of this as you want and it's a really refreshing way to spend your summer.

Mango Salsa

I'm addicted! I've always wanted to make my own mango salsa and I finally got the chance to! In my delivery from Farm Fresh to You, I got a lot of fruit with things that I don't usually go out and by on my own. Growing, up I didn't eat a lot of mangoes so I don't really know how to cook with them - besides the salsa. I saw my delivery as the perfect opportunity to try something new. Besides how incredibly sweet and spicy the salsa is, it's also really easy to make. I couldn't stop eating it right out of the bowl... you'll see why. I didn't follow a recipe for this, but I make salsas regularly and just substituted the mango for the tomato and it worked out.

My FFtY delivery

What You'll Need:

1 Mango

1/2 Red onion

3 Chili peppers of your choice

1 C Cilantro

1 Avocado

Lime juice

The first thing you'll need to do is peel your mango. I used a potato peeler, but make sure the mango is room temp so it's easier to peel and cut. After cut the mango into small cubes and put in a serving or mixing bowl.

I don't usually use avocados in any salsa, but I'm never opposed to it! I did use it in this one, though. I had an extra one and the creaminess of them is welcome in most of my dishes. Just cut the avocado in half and cube them in the shell. Use a spoon to scoop them out into the bowl. 

Cut the chilies next. My favorites are Serrano and Wax peppers. I rarely use Jalapenos because they're awesomely spicy but Mike can't always handle it. For this salsa cut the chilies like you would for any other salsa. I had three peppers and since I heard a lot of heat is in the seeds (and my mouth would agree), and since I didn't know how spicy these particular chilies were, I took out the seeds from one of the peppers and left them in the other two. I prefer the heat.

I really love the taste of cilantro but I'm fully aware some people don't care for it. I cut up about a cup of it to add. Do less if you don't like it, but I wouldn't cut it out completely because it helps give a really great freshness to the salsa. I also used mostly the leaves. I'm also fully aware that there is tons of flavor in the stems but I just didn't want to use them.

Now the onions. I've used white onion in salsa before but I already had some red onion and I felt like the flavor would be a good mix with the heat and sweetness, since red onions have a lot of flavor and tend to be a little sweeter too. 

Once everything is in the bowl give it a mix and use the juice of one lime to help with flavor and things from browning. You can serve this salsa as a garnish for fish or chicken, as a salsa for a party or get-together, or just to eat straight out of the bowl. No matter what it's spicy and delicious and definitely foodie awesomeness.

Gouda and Fruit Plate

 

Okay, okay. I know I'm suppose to be going in order of my culinary endeavors but this was just too pretty and too delicious to wait to post (this probably won't be the last time this happens - fyi). I had an unexpected day off today (that's how you know you work too much - when people want your hours) and Mike was out fixing his car, or some boy stuff like that, so I slept in. When I rolled out of bed I couldn't decide if I wanted to watch Top Chef and drink coffee or watch Top Chef and make breakfast. Since I get a wonderful shipment of organic fruits and veggies, courtesy of Farm Fresh to You, and because I bought a brand of Gouda I hadn't tried yet, I decided on a small cheese and fruit platter (and Top Chef).

I decided on one plum, a handful of red seedless grapes, and blueberries (I only used about half of them). 

I rinsed off the blueberries and grapes together with the spray option on my sink faucet instead of the stream. I always feel like stream is too much water at one time for fruit.

 (Even in the wax, the Gouda looked delicious). I only cut off 1/3 of the cheese - come on, it was barely even lunch time!

You can't deny this (even as a first meal of the day). With the little chunk of cheese I used, I cut it into smaller bite-size pieces. I never worry about making the pieces even because I like the uneven amounts of creamy contrast they give when eaten with the fruit.

Then I put the berries and grapes on a paper towel to really dry off. After I cut the plum into bite-size pieces.

Yes, that fabulous fabric you see under my plate is my totally retro couch :)

 I then plated everything. All of the natural sweetness was a good change from my morning coffee. After everything was plated (I'll clean up later) I sat down and watched Top Chef! :)

America's Most Harmful Drinks

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Help Our Kids- Courtesy of Jamie Oliver

Remember Jamie Oliver, once The Naked Chef? How many people were watching his new show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? Well we were. The show was sort of on at a weird time- Friday nights at 9. But in case you didn't watch it (shame on you) what he did was simple. Jamie went to the unhealthiest town in America (Huntington, WV) and tried to get a food revolution going to make their people healthy again.

Jamie Oliver 's Food Revolution Promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-mYAoWu-O8

When Jamie arrived at an elementary school he faced a lot of resistance from the adults who seemed too lazy to make any real changes and resistance from kids who would die for their chocolate milk...an literally were. What Jamie found in Huntington were people dying of obesity, entire families getting diabetes, and young kids getting their lives shortened because of the fatty, processed food they over-consumed on a daily basis.

Jamie tried replacing the crappy school lunches (nuggets, french fries, several types of pizza, and and every color of milk except white) at the schools with homemade food that were full of vegetables and nutrients. Real bread, baked chicken, and salads were too much for the lunch ladies...sorry...school cooks to handle. Jamie went through every resource he could to let the people know he had a kitchen up for people to come in and learn how to cook good, healthy, meals. There's one episode left but so far Jamie has taught over 1,000 people in that town a better way to cook. His kitchen is open up to anyone and the people are starting to take notice of their problem and trying to fix it.

Jamie has a petition up so that we can get our kids' school lunches healthier across America and not just in that one town. Here's the link. It's really simple to sign, you just need to do it. We hope you do.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/petition

Also, on the show Jamie showed the town how to make a really awesome looking beef stirfry. He chose it because all the ingredients are healthy and obtainable. We haven't tried it yet but we're dying to soon. Here's the recipe. We'll let you know what we think soon. :)

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/beef-and-vegetable-stir-fry