Chicken and White bean Stuffed Peppers

Hiya Kiddos!

Just want to take a moment to wish a congratulations to the 5 winners of the crackers giveaway! You will have received an email from me. Please pardon my lateness. I am blogging from my phone today so please excuse the lack of names.

I have had quite the weekend! I met up with some Yelpers for beer and sausage then went to Long Island where I was tricked into driving.. for those that dont know- i am a 27 year old non-driver. I got into the car and courtney pulled into a parking lot and told me i was going to drive. I drove in circles with complete confidence and then got tricked into driving to her house. I did so and managed to do it safely. I only confused the gas and brake pedals twice.

Before i went to Long Island, I placed an order with fresh direct on some peppers. They were on sale. And I was thinking stuffed peppers for sure. The peppers were about $1 per lb and i ordered 5 peppers…. when the delivery arrived there was a note on the receipt saying there was a price adjustment on the peppers… which were so huge they cost me $15. Gee-sus!

Look at these HUGE Ass Peppers!

Ingredients:

5 bell peppers split in half, core and seeds removed

1 tsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 lb chicken breast

15 oz of canellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup of brown rice, cooked

1/2 cup cheddar cheese (+ 1/2 cup for the topping)

salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven 400*. Arrange the peppers in a baking dish. I began by sauteeing the onions in olive oil over a medium flame. When they were translucent (after 7 minutes or so), i transferred them to a dish and added the chicken breast to the already hot pan. I pan-fried the chicken breasts over medium for about 6 minutes per side. When it was done, i chopped it up into bite size pieces.

I returned the cooked onions, chicken, beans, rice, and cheese to the pan and tossed to heat through. Seasoned with salt and pepper according to my preference.

Then, filled up the peppers with the yummy filling. The peppers were on the large side, so i was lucky to have enough filling for them. If you’re peppers are on the large side, you can always add more veggies or rice to the filling.

Sprinkle liberally with cheese. yum. I added a bit of water to the pan and covered it with foil for some steam action. I cooked on 400* for 35 minutes.

Behold. Rice, beans, and chicken in a huge and fresh bell pepper. This was awesome. You can even freeze them (but note that the pepper will be softer when you defrost and reheat) and makes a great lunch or dinner (2 halves for dinner in my house LOL)

I love how versatile stuffed peppers are!

What do you stuff into your peppers?? (or would like to?)

Lazy Pizza

What. A. Day.

Ever have a day at the office and nothing seems to be inspiring?

I totally had a day like that.

On days like that I really want to throw in the towel. Put on my stretchy pants and order some take out. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes it makes it worse.

I had a surplus of groceries this week and really really hate throwing things away. I was going to order some pizza.

with peppers.

and black olives.

My fave.

And i discovered that i had everything necessary to make my own pizza.

Pizza that wasn’t going to make me feel guilty. And that wasn’t going to take very long to make.

Pita Pizza (for one really hungry and lazy diva)

Ingredients: 2 small whole wheat pitas, 1/2 cup of your favorite marinara sauce, 1/3 cup shredded part skim mozzarella, 1/4 cup sliced black olives**, 1/2 bell pepper thinly sliced**.

**optional..you can add whatever you want on your pizza.

Preheat the oven to 400*

Spoon 1/4 cup of marinara on each pita. If you are not lazy you would have shredded your mozzarella, but i sliced mine thinly because i didn’t want to wash the grater. Arrange peppers and olives the way you like…

or add your own toppings.

Arrange pita pizzas on a baking sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes. or until cheese is melty and pita is crisp.

This was after 8 minutes.

I dug in.

i’m so impatient sometimes.

Later that evening while enjoying a glass of wine, my roommate AKA cheese eater was futzing around in the kitchen.

Lately, he likes to cook…

so i stuck my nosey self in the kitchen to see what he was up to and make sure he wasnt eating my cheese again.

he was looking for brown sugar to make his oatmeal.

There wasnt any. It was late. I didnt want to go out. Neither did he. So i sat for a moment and thought: Make my own.

DUH.

So i took 1 cup of white sugar and added 1 tbsp of dark molasses. Using a fork, i folded the sugar till the molasses did their thing:

Boom. Homemade brown sugar.

It was awesome and I was doing a homemade brown sugar dance in the living room when cheese eater starts calling me a genius and laughing.

Obviously I’m a genius…but why so sarcastic Cheesey?

He walks into the living room holding a sealed bag of brown sugar.

i knew that. (maybe)

How do you even stand me sometimes?!?!

Happy Weekend!

Pizza and PJs

I cashed in some vouchers for free pizza crusts a while back and stashed them in my freezer. Its nice to have a back up plan for those days when I dont feel like cooking anything extravagant (it happens sometimes)

My Meg (who is working with me right now to develop a cooler alias) suggested a girls night in… Netflix and pizza. As you know, when Meg and I hangout- we eat well. like, really well.

With her promise of bringing beer, i defrosted the pizza crusts and went shopping for toppings.

For Meg:

Cheese

For Mo:

Cheese, olives, caramelized onions, peppers, and mushrooms.

For a while I used pre-shredded cheese because I lacked the gadgets necessary to produce shredded anything… but I was a good girl this year:

And there is a DEFINITE different in fresh shredded cheese vs. pre-shredded. All the moisture in the cheese was still intact and it made for an ooey gooey melty cheesy pizza.

I used my emergency jarred marinara sauce on the pizza which comes in handy on days like these.

Divas Pizza, before 8 minutes in the oven at 425*

Meg’s Cheesy pizza, before the oven lovin.

Mine, after! Loooovin the veggie goodness.

Megs CHEESY, Ridonculously gooey pizza. Seriously, pre-shredded cheese just became retarded lol.

We served ourselves some slices…

And watched a bloody movie on Netflix. Best Girls Night ever!

Whats your ideal night in? Chips and dip? Board Games? Horror stories?

Radiator Pasta with Sausage and Kale

Happy Monday.
Fall is definitely making its way…I took a long walk through Forest Park with Mickey around 4 and when we were making our way back around 6 there was an amazing silence in the woods. The sky had darkened slightly letting you know that the sun is making its way down and every creature in the forest had stood still. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I was walking listening to my iPod and actually turned it off to bask in the silence. If i werent such a chicken shit, i’d stay in the forest till it got dark just to enjoy the silence for a little longer.
But after a 4 mile walk- you get hungry. And i could think of only one thing that would be amazing in my belly…
Carbs. Radiator pasta to be exact. I love fun shaped pasta- i love pasta over all but the fun shapes enhance my dining experience. Because im 5. I aldo added some kale, turkey sausage and peppers to the party.
Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, julienned
1 lb of sausage with casings removed (i used turkey sausage)
1 lb of pasta (i used radiatorre)
1 head of kale (trimmed of spine and stem and cut into pieces)
1 14 oz can of crushed tomatoes
parmesan cheese
Start off by dicing onions and slicing peppers into julienne strips. Saute the onion and pepper for 5-7 minutes with a little olive oil and crumble in 1 pound of turkey sausage with the casings removed.

Using a spoon (or whatever is easier) break the sausage up as its cooking to make it crumble. When the sausage is cooked, add a head of kale (ripped into pieces with the stems and spines removed)

Allow the kale to wilt. Should take about 5 minutes. At this point, I would say add a little salt if needed but I nixed the salt in favor of a palmful of parmigianno reggiano cheese.

I then added a 14 oz can of crushed tomatoes and allowed the mixture to simmer for 20 mins…or until the sauce thickened. While the sauce is thickening, cook the pasta till its al dente.

Serve yourself a healthy portion of pasta and several spoonfuls of sausage junk.

Mad good yo. Mad good.

Today marks the start of the Project Food Blog Star Voting… If you would like to vote for me, please click here. Please note that you can log in to FoodBuzz with your facebook or twitter ID and if you have neither, you can register.

Snobby Joes

A while back, My good friend Lauren was doing a series on Lentils and a giveaway. I participated in a survery for a chance to win a buttload of lentils. Sadly, i did not win. But a few weeks later I got a small envelope filled with a cup of green lentils! I may not have been a winner but I definitely didnt come out empty handed.
When I thought about the lentils, I honestly didn’t know what I wanted to do with them and they are too awesome to just sit in the bag… Thats when i thought about my early adventures in the kitchen. I could NEVER make a sloppy joe. NEVER. My ex would scratch his head and wonder how i can make tomato sauce from scratch and not make his favorite childhood dish of sloppy joes…My sauce would always taste sweet and off putting and never like the kind we used to go ape shit for in middle school.
And I found a recipe for Snobby Joes. All the flavor of a Sloppy Joe but way better because instead of ground meat, we are using: LENTILS!
I’m gonna let ya’ll know right now- It was GOOD…

To start, You’ll need:

1 cup of dry lentils (+ 4 cups of water to boil)

1 bell pepper, diced

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup tomato sauce

1/4 cup of tomato paste

1 tsp mustard

3 tablespoons of maple syrup

3 tablespoons of chili powder

1 tsp salt

Boil the lentils in 4 cups of water for 20- 25 minutes or until they are soft.

While the lentils are boiling, prep you garlic, onion and pepper.

(pretty colors!) With about 10 minutes or so left on the lentils…

Saute pepper and onion for 8 minutes in a medium sauce pot over Medium heat.Then add the garlic and let cook for two mins, also over a medium heat.

When the lentils are done, drain them and add them to the pot with the peppers and onions. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, chili powder and salt.

(try not to Fog up your lense) Let the mixture cook (stirring occassionally) for about 10 mins on a lower heat and then add mustard and maple syrup and allow to heat through. Taste. Plate. Serve on the bread or bun of your choice ( i chose Arnold Sandwich thins – Thanks FoodBuzz!)

It would be a really good time to show you what a snobby joe looks like on some bread… but in my excitement over this huge success, i kinda just went for it.

Nostalgic. Healthy. Yummy. and EASY!

And for those on a budget, this was really affordable! One cup of lentils in this recipe made 6 hefty portions of the snobby stuff.
I believe with my whole heart that this recipe will complete you. Filling a nostalgic void and also taking a healthy approach to a childhood favorite. Betcha the kids wont be able to tell its good for them!

…all i need now are some tater tots…

P.S.

Highlights from the Bachlorette party…. the PG stuff…

Tower of pee pee cupcakes.

Cuppycakes.

Holding the Bride To Be’s tiara while she… had fun.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Hey, its friday! TWO POSTS in ONE DAY all before 11am!
Story time post is up… but if some of you aren’t in the mood for a story or the sweet treat I left for you at the end of the post… here is something on the savory side.
STUFFED PEPPERS!
Yet another awesome dish i got from the Take 5 Cookbook. I have owned this book for a little less than a month and ALREADY the spine has broken! lol. I wore it out. I saw the most BEAUTIFUL peppers at the market the other day and I wanted them so badly… the first thing that popped into my head was stuffed peppers and i was even more delighted to know that my take 5 cookbook had a recipe…
but as I read the recipe, i found I didnt want to make it the way it was in the cookbook… so here’s my version with some tweaks and improvs.
I set some rice to steam. I seasoned the rice with salt and basil. While the rice was cooking, i started to cook a pound of lean ground beef.
I seasoned the ground beef with adobo… but feel free to use whatever you like to season ground beef. I mean, this will be YOUR dinner so why not season it the way you want! Oh and I think soy crumbles would work nicely in this recipe for my vegetarians (Hi Mari!). I cooked the beef until it was no longer pink and broke it up into crumbles.
When the rice was cooked i added it to the beef and stirred it around to get the rice and the beef well acquainted.

Give it a taste… it might need more seasoning. At this point I sprinkled a little bit of salt and pepper. Just cause i can.

I then grabbed my peppers. Cut them in half and removed the seeds and ribs. I filled the peppers to the top with the beef and rice mixture. Sprinkled it with sharp cheddar cheese, cover with a sheet of tin foil, and place them in a baking pan on 400* for 25 minutes.

I poured some vegetable juice into the pan… for no other reason than I wanted to use it up…lol. And it looks pretty, i guess?

Try not to eat your screen. I served myself two pepper halves because one was not enough. these babies were awesome and i shared the loot with my mom and dad who arent really big fans of the Pepper…

They asked if i had any more…

Def gonna make these again but want to try them with soy crumbles for a leaner and lower calorie pepper! yum!

Raise Your Hand, Mickey!

Raise your hand if you’re excited for BlogHer!

Weeeeee! Silly Mickey! She gets to go to her aunt Patti’s house while Momma scores swag bags and makes new friends.
My life is so hard sometimes.
Especially when it comes to eats.
Food. GLORIOUS Food.
My weakness: New York Bagels.
My Savior?
Thomas’ Bagel thins. 100 calories of Bagel. Do i miss the other million Cals? Sometimes but I really love the bagel “feeling”. Especially with Whipped Cream Cheese. Drool.
At lunch, i was craving some takeout. But i was really TRYING to be good. So…

I ordered chicken with mixed veggies with brown rice and the sauce on the side. I put 1/3 of the portion on a small plate and ate to my hearts content. The smaller plate really helps. I had leftovers for another day. And the sauce on the side only sucked a little…but nothing beats the taste of fresh veggies. (maybe the taste of fried chicken… )

Later on, i hit the pavement with Mickey and it started to pour, We ran to Patty’s house for cover…

And mickey was happy because Patti keeps the good treats on hand. Look at Mickey’s Focus on that bacon. SMH. Like my nails?

And of course My Patti cooked dinner and made enough for me. Since i missed almost ALL of the street fairs this summer, I was so happy to hear patti say she was making sausage and peppers! My fav street food!

I would normally post pics of her cooking but the last time I did that she sent me a death threat via text and I cant die Before BlogHer… I just cant.

Once again, it was awesome to have a nice dinner with friends (and no dishes to clean) and play with the doggies. I just learned that Patti has RockBand.. and DJ Hero. There will be more time away from the Mo-Tel and lots of time at Chez Patti for some game time. HEEEELLLL YEAH.

Whats your favorite Street Food?

WHen you are DYING for takeout, how do you make it healthy? (or do you just go for broke and order what you want?)

Hittin’ the Road Pt 3

After our Water Ices from Rita’s we did some serious… and I mean SERIOUS shopping. It was hot like Whoa and we had that AC blasting! After hitting PetSmart, Walmart, Sears, Best Buy, Spencers, and Ollie’s we headed to Sam’s Club for a car battery. We knew in advance that the battery was on the fritz but while on a gas run the car decided it was done. Luckily we were walking distance from Sam’s club.
We did some MORE shopping in Sam’s Club and when we were done we had to wait a while before the car would be ready. After about an hour we got sick of staring at this:
Because it looks REALLY REALLY GOOD. And my cousin said “Dude, its DISGUSTING!” and In our family that means its really freakin good… we’re weird that way. But when we say something is disgusting with disdain… its disgustingly GOOD. Lord, please let nothing edible be really disgusting… cuz the Food Snob fam might think its a green light to eat it!

Vanilla soft serve (though I tell myself its fro yo) with raspberry syrup. Great Googa Mooga. this baby was deelish. We (aka MOM) bought 3 and we all dove in.

I shared mine with this tiny diva. She kept telling me to bring the “juice” to the top. I was glad to because it was saturated with syrup… and I dont need that much sugar. Not pictured is the puddle of water that made its way to my cousins pants… little diva spilled water on a picnic bench and her momma sat right on it… thats when the boredom giggles commenced.

“Tia, take my picture!”

“Mine too!”

And just so you know, there may be a lot of pics below but no where near as many as i had originally taken… but i cant explain my family and their cookiness without giving examples to back it up.

The Food Snob pose.

The Eating Machine Pose.

Another Hour into waiting for the car:

I can only explain this expression by having you refer to the massive quantity of raspberry syrup little diva consumed. CRAZED!

don’t ask. Just laugh.

This is the Evil Lunch Lady… If you’re wondering where the hairnet came from… i bought it at spencers. One because its retro and two becuase it was a buck… im a sucker for sales.

BORED!

We heard our name called and was to let us know they were working on the car. A million hours later. Dude, I look like im gonna cry but I was about to crack up from holding the sad face.

They cracked up shortly after… and Wouldn’t you know it! the car was fixed right after this pick. We only stood in sams club for a million hours! yay! time to go home and make dinner!

Cuzzo started chopping peppers and onions…

cuz we were gonna have italian sausage and peppers.

mmmmm. Love this smell! I let them cook for a long while. they were getting caramelized!

Mom was on time out cuz she kept telling me what to do… Mom, have you seen the blog? I know my kitchen. JK. She was just taking a break (on the time out stool)…but i like the idea of her being on time out.

To ensure a juicy and crispy sausage (TWSS) we boiled them for a few minutes so the innards cooked up evenly. and to help them cook faster without losing their juiciness…

Peppers and onions, check!

Crisping of the sausages, check!

Dad taking a break, Check.

Stuff face. CHECK! Go back for seconds CHECK!

the sausage and peppers reminded of the kind from the NY street fairs- only from a CLEANER kitchen! MMM.

whats your favorite Street food?

Oh How I loathe Thee

SNOW.
I friggin hate it.
Its gorgeous when it falls but in NYC that beauty is short lived when it starts to turn black on the corners and gets slushy in the street and then walking to the trainstation you wanna physically beat the people who didnt shovel their sidewalk properly and now have a lovely sheet of ice for you to crawl on on your way to the train station. Four blocks never seemed so long.
But there is one lil cutie that surprised me with her love for the snow.
This lil diva. This is on our 2nd walk in the snow. I was dreading the first one and after seeing her in action, i had to take pics… my first dog as a child HATED the snow… so this was quite a sight.

She kind of hates when i make her sit so i can take a pic of her. Im such an evil mom.

shes literally bouncing like a bunny in the snow… the leash wasnt long enough for her strides…

but she bounces right back. Eating, snorting, sniffling the snow. She makes snorting sounds and she excitedly sniffs for a spot to mark. I was laughing at her. Even today as the snow is getting gross, she still dodges any and all opportunities to put her paws in it and jump around! LOL

She was diggin in the snow with her face. Way to use your head Mickey!

I came home and desperately wanted take out. But I couldnt order out without feeling guilty for the guys that have to schlep one measly order… so i faked my take out. Sitr fry is easy enough. I had a few things lying around that would be great in a stir fry. Broccoli, onions, sliced steak, snap peas, and stir fry sauce.
the beef was leftover from some steaks that I didnt think were worthy of being served whole, so i sliced them up ahead of time and froze them. (plan ahead!)
I heated a little sesame seed oil and threw in my onions and frozen veggies and tossed around until it was semi cooked. I threw in some peppers and beef, a bit of stir fry sauce and a few tablespoons of soy sauce. I seasoned with garlic poweder, onion powder and added a lil heat with some red pepper flakes.

I needed some rice to go with it so i set up my steamer (oh how i love u) and steamed some brown rice. Literally, just add rice and water and set to cook!
When my stir fry was done, I let it chill out while my rice finished.
Nice and fluffy! Perfectly cooked!
USE SMALL PLATES! They really are deceiving… You are look at 3/4 cup of rice and 1 cup of stirfry… VERRRRRRY Filling!

Wasnt authentic but was definitely tasty and better than those freezer stir frys!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Crazy Pic Overload!!!

I have a bad habit of slacking off on the weekend, with respect to the blog, and then on Monday I get flustered and go nuts uploading pics and then sorting them out by day.

We are going to go over the weekend as it happened.

FRIDAY
On Friday after work, it was a coworkers birthday so we all headed over to Whiskey Tavern for Happy Hour.

My First Drink was a pitiful Dirty martini. It was too dirty, It was incredibly cloudy and they used the cheap stuff *blech*, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round was a very safe and yummy Vodka Tonic. Thats my “go to” drink when I go out.
This was dinner. I only paid $9 for a Chicken Florentine burger. The fries were perfect. But the chicken was a little tough. A Little spicy mustard and dab of mayo cleared that problem right up!
That is ONE Mamoth Burger! I looked at it and felt overwhelmed because i imagined a $9 meal in the city would be smaller. Quite the bang for my buck! I was hoping to NOT eat this whole thing…

Drinking leads to mindless munching… and I ate that WHOLE thing. Except the napkin of course.
Went home, went to bed because Saturdays I have TAP CLASS!

SATURDAY
Alarm clock went off and I was happy to NOT have a hangover (who the hell wants to bounce around with a hangover)

I made a super healthy breakfast of Oatmeal with cinnamon and walnuts.

And I MUST have my vitamins with all the sickies around!

Looks like Orange Juice. Tastes like crushed Orange Vitamins. I usually put this in Orange Juice but I was all out so i used water. Chug Chug Chug.
I got lost on my way to tap class because our studio moved to a FURTHER part of Queens and Im a Brooklyn Girl. I had to take the bus and I am not good with the bus. So after witnessing a man beatup his girlfriend in Jamaica Queens, being offered weed on Parsons and Archer, someone asking me to marry them at the bus stop and the perv that faced the back of the bus to stare at me I made it to class. Next week Im carrying Pepper Spray. Class went well. We were productive. I, as usual, had tourettes in class; because when i cant nail a combination i curse.
Went home to moms house and freeloaded.

Thanks to Missy and her wraps, I made a Smoked Turkey, Meunster Cheese and Roast pepper wrap.

Wrap-tastic!I was geared up to go to Michael’s 5th anniversary of his 21st Birthday (or 26th Birthday to all the old fogies) and I got so sick all of a sudden. I had a splitting headache and got chills, a fever, and felt really dizzy. My dad took me home and I missed the party! I was so bummed. Later that evening, I ate some chicken fried rice. And then I splurged on a cupcake my bro brought home from work.

Went to bed with an ice pack on my face.

SUNDAY
I felt pretty rotten. Stupid headache. Everything else felt better but I could not open my eyes, the light was sooo bright. And when I moved I hurt like hell. It was definitely a sinus headache. I made some breakfast and realized it was time to go food shopping.
No bread around so i made an egg with some grits. Not exciting at all. But it filled me up. I rummaged through the cabinets and fridge and made my shopping list. I also took out a Beef Tenderloin to defrost for Dinner.

I seasoned a 3 lb tenderloin with some Montreal Steak Seasoning. Its a coarse rub with pepper, garlic, salt, and some other delicious spices. I preheated the oven to 425.

And placed the tenderloin in a baking dish with carrots and potatoes. I covered with foil and cooked for 50 minutes. It was 20 minutes in the oven for every pound of meat.

Next time I will cook for less time. The meat was a little one the chewy side. To accompany the meat, I made some Risotto. I kind of BSed this recipe but what else is new?I took some arborio rice (or med grain rice) and tossed it in some Oil to toast the grains a bit. Once they were a bit toasty, I added two packets of mushroom soup mix from my Ramen Noodles (minus the noodles).and poured three cups of water into the pan. Let it come to a boil and cover. Stir every 5 minutes until the water is absorbed. Some people add 1 cup of water at a time so the rice slowly absorbs the water but Im impatient that way.

Its just about ready in this photo. Remove it from the heat after about 15 minutes and let the remaining liquid absorb into the rice.
Iit should be very moist and as my mom would say it “MUSHY”.
Plate it and serve! After all this cooking, I gave it a taste and was more than happy to serve this to Henry and put mine aside. I still had a headache and wanted something creamy. Was going to make pudding but it would have taken too long and the thought of taking out the mixer made me tired. So I went for the Chobani yogurt that I splurged on today. This one yogurt was $1.99!No complaints. It was tart and sweet and creamy and just what i wanted! YuM!

Henry came over later on, ate dinner and surprised me with dessert.

He rememberd how taken I was with the photo I took last week and bought this to me hoping it would cure my headache.It didnt cure me but it certainly did taste good! it wasnt too sweet and the cake itself was fluffy. polished this slice off with a glass of milk.

I think I am lactose intolerant… After the yogurt and milk I had a tummy ache.

If you’re still reading… thanks and sorry. I hope you feel caught up. Because I need a nap now.