Recently she was telling me about Christmas dinner at her Dad's - which could be a post all to itself. Completely non-traditional from an American standpoint, but everything sounded SO delicious.
By the way, Jo has a blog of her own that's linked at the bottom of my site (Looking For A Pen That Works) where she writes extremely good fantasy fiction, check her stuff out! Perfect for a day like tomorrow when we're all snowed in and looking for a good read...
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Dear Carolyn,
Remarkably, over the course of the Holiday Foodplosion that is Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and Little Christmas (‘cuz the Ukrainian Orthodox party well into January) I managed to gain all of 5 pounds. I’m genuinely surprised at how little my weight went up. Usually, I try to not focus on numbers on the scale as it’s not my weight, but how I feel that matters. But I couldn’t help but get on the scale to see. My thoughts and feelings on food, weight, health and beauty are all a jumble. But that’s the introduction to a different essay all together; one I’ll send to you another day. For now, I want to talk about my getting back on the Healthy Eating Wagon.
Cooking is the key to me making healthier food choices. Happily, I love to cook and with the weather being so freaking cold, I’m happy to hang out in a toasty warm kitchen. Both Saturday and Sunday afternoons saw me cooking this weekend.
Due to a mishap at Produce Junction, I have more peppers than I like. I asked for red peppers and green beans and didn’t pay enough attention when veggies were packed in my grocery bag. I ended up with red peppers and green peppers. At least I don’t have to fear a Vitamin A deficiency for a while.
Saturday I made vegetarian chili; enough to last a week. Some, I’ve stashed away in my freezer for later, the rest I’ll be serving up over lunches and a couple dinners this week. I haven’t had any yet, so I want to hold off on photos and the recipe until later. Of course there are bell peppers involved. LOL
Sunday saw me making Stuffed Roasted Red Peppers for my dinner. Roasting the peppers was a little fiddly, but oh so worth the little bit of trouble.
Stuffed Roasted Red Peppers
Ingredients:
4-6 red bell peppers
1 T. Olive oil
½ C. Onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 C. cooked brown rice
1 C. canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 C. whole kernel corn, drained canned or frozen
2 T. canned jalapenos, diced
Salt & pepper to taste
Shredded cheddar cheese
Roast the peppers:
Roast the whole peppers on a grill or under a broiler until they’re black. Put them in a paper bag for a few minutes. Once cooled a bit, remove the peels (they should just slide off). For longer peppers make a slit down the center to remove the seeds. Keep the cap on for presentation. If your peppers are the regular bell pepper size then remove the cap to stuff from the top. Then, without cutting through the pepper, slice a bit off the bottom so the pepper will stand upright.
Make the filling:
In a deep-ish pan, sauté the onion in the olive oil and add garlic. When the onions are translucent, add the rice, beans, corn and jalapenos. Stir and warm through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Also feel free to turn up the spice heat and add chili powder, hot sauce, whatever. (I opted to add hot sauce when serving.)
Stuff the peppers and cover with grated cheese. I had about 2 T. of cheese per pepper.
Bake at 325 degrees for 30 mins.
I served with a simple mixed baby greens salad with grape tomatoes, crimini mushrooms and a light Italian dressing. (I really wanted a cilantro lime vinaigrette for my salad, but my cilantro looked bad by the time I got to it and I didn’t feel like going to the grocery for more. Maybe I’ll get some today for my salad with dinner tonight.)
Anyway, if you make this, let me know how it goes.
Joanna
That sounds good!
ReplyDeleteThinking vegetarian, the pesto you two had the other day goes well on tofu. When I gave up meat for Lent one year I often ate a sandwich of whole grain bread spread withg pesto, pan-fried tofu, and a tomato slice.
Garlic Breath Pesto
Ingredients:
2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
Olive oil
1 bulb garlic (not a clove, all the cloves in a bulb)
1/2 cup pine (pignoli) nuts
4 oz parmesan cheese
Put the basil in a blender. Add olive oil until you've got just enough for the blender to chop up the leaves. Peel the garlic, add it, chop it up too. Add the pine nuts and parmesan, grind it all into a thick mixture. Should barely pour; I prop the blender pitcher over a bowl and leave it for an hour, then scrape out the rest with a long-handled spoon. Let it sit in the refrigerator for three days (eating it sooner it has more bite and less umami, I only made that one day early instead of three and remembered after I'd tasted it).
It makes a lot of vegetables taste insipid, though. I think it'd go well with roasted peppers or a tomato-and-squash based dish like a ratatouille. Spinach is otherwise one of my favorites but after the pesto it just tastes like iron.
Thanks Charles! That was a really good pesto sauce. The other day I had pizza with a light coating of pesto sauce instead of red sauce, covered in big tomato chunks and broccoli and lightly sprinkled with cheese. It was outstanding, I'm going to try to re-create a home made version for myself.
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