Stuffed Poblano Peppers...by Jen

Hi! Time for another post from the non-cooking non-crafty sister! So I LOVE stuffed peppers. So unhealthy but so delicious. I don’t like the green pepper kind of course that can be disguised as remotely healthy if you try. I’m talking about jalapeño peppers stuffed with cream cheese and fried. A few years ago I started making them at home without the frying. Still unhealthy but still delicious. So today it hit me I should try a little harder. My new favorite thing is cauliflower “rice”. I’ve been making burrito bowls with it so got to thinking I wonder if I could make a version similar to stuffed green peppers with the cauliflower rice? Maybe with poblano peppers instead of green peppers so would still be slightly hot? So today I gave it a shot. 

I sliced a poblano in half and filled with a veggie mixture. I did still use cream cheese to hold it together but switched to fat free. This was delicious. 

I didn’t find it quite flavorful enough so added hot sauce on top after cooking. Next time I’ll add something to the mixture. I’m thinking red pepper flakes or garlic? Or maybe a taco seasoning packet. In the meantime here is what I used: 

3 large Poblano peppers
1 block fat free cream cheese
1/3 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup cauliflower rice
1 cup mushrooms
1/2 cup spinach
1/2 cup Pico
1/3 cup fat free sour cream

Mix it all together, fill peppers and bake on a cookie sheet 30 minutes at 350 or until peppers are soft. 

3.6.18: arranging daffodils
3.6.17: shamrock wreath
3.6.16: crock pot white chicken chili

Zucchini Pie

Well it's that time of year...zucchini, zucchini, zucchini! Last week I posted a great Zucchini Lasagna recipe from The Italian Dish (click here for that post), and today it's Zucchini Pie - different than the lasagna for sure (waaaay less cheese for starters!) but just as good. Fun to have different ways to switch up eating our summer veggies.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds zucchini (about 5 for me)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
• 1 1/2 T. olive oil
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 2 T. chopped fresh oregano (I used 1 T. dried)
• 5 garlic cloves, minced (I only used 1 t. minced)
• 7 large eggs
• 2/3 cup 1% low-fat milk
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 1/2 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (about 2/3 cup)
• 2 ounces grated parmesan (about 1/2 cup)

Directions:

1. Using a spiralizer, cut zucchini into noodles, or cut zucchini into long noodles using a julienne peeler.  Place zucchini in a colander in sink. Toss with 1 teaspoon salt and let stand 20 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add tomatoes, oregano, and garlic; cook, stirring often, until tomatoes are wilted, 3-4 minutes. Remove mixture from pan and cool slightly.
3. Preheat oven to 375'. Place half of zucchini noodles on a clean kitchen towel, wrap towel around zucchini and twist/squeeze until all liquid is extracted (note: I did this a little differently by taking small handfuls of zucchini and pressing them between my hands over the sink to get out a lot of the liquid, then put in paper towels and squeeze some more, repeat with all of the zucchini).
4. Whisk eggs in a large bowl until lightly beaten. Whisk in milk, flour, pepper, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add tomato mixture, cheeses, and zucchini; toss.
5. Wrap bottom of a 9" springform pan tightly with foil; coat bottom and sides with non-stick cooking spray. Pour egg mixture into pan. Bake at 375' until set in the middle, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Cool 10-15 minutes. Remove sides from pan; cut zucchini pie into 6 wedges. 

serves 6 (or 3 if you're like us!). It's great hot, at room temperature, and cold. 

calories 267, fat 14.8g, carb 17g, fiber 3g

the recipe came from Cooking Light

we had it with pesto chicken (click here for my fave pesto recipe - so good!)

6/25 - week of dinner menus

Haven't had time to try any new main dish recipes so thought I'd share a roundup of what we had this week in case you need some ideas for meal planning (click on the highlighted words to go to the previously posted recipes):

1. grilled tuna with greek salad (chopped tomatoes, cukes, feta cheese, garbanzo beans tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper)
2. grilled pork chops with perfect sweet potatoes and sautéed zucchini with mushrooms (note this really does make perfect sweet potatoes!). 
3. perfect grilled chicken with cole slaw and roasted green beans
4. bison burger salad
5. grilled steak with sauteed mushrooms, and southwest salad (black beans, corn, tomatoes, avocado tossed with olive oil and southwest seasoning)
6. meatloaf with mashed cauliflower and mixed veggies
7. one night we went out ;)

We eat pretty simple - typically grilled meat with veggie side. How 'bout you? Doing anything more interesting you want to share? 

BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

I saw a recipe on cookinglight.com for bbq pork stuffed sweet potatoes, I had the potatoes already but didn't have pork so I changed it to chicken (since I keep cooked chunks in the freezer, remember? click here for that post) - they also made homemade bbq sauce but I took the short cut route and used Sweet Baby Ray's.

Cut cooked chicken up into small pieces and heat thru (I just micro'd for a few seconds) then stir in bbq sauce to taste. Spoon that on top of a hot baked sweet potato (click here for the easiest foolproof way to bake them - I do a few ahead of time and then just heat them back up), then top with a dollop of sour cream. Oh man this is a good quick simple dinner!

served with steamed kale left over from Al's peanut soup (click here for that post)

Cornmeal-Crusted Chicken

This chicken is such an easy, healthy, quick, delish dish - I haven't made it in a while but am now remembering how much we like it! I'm bringing this recipe back to the front for sure.

• 6 boneless chicken breast halves (2 lbs total)
• 1 1/4 lbs roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup finely slivered arugula
• 3 T. capers
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup parmesan
• 1/2 t. pepper
• 1/4 t. cayenne
• salt to taste

-Pound chicken till flat and uniform thickness. Beat egg with 1 T. water in a shallow dish. In another shallow dish combine cornmeal, parmesan, and spices. Dip the chicken in the egg, then cornmeal mixture coating completely. Grill (or bake) until done.

-Meanwhile, combine tomatoes, arugula, capers, lemon and olive oil in a bowl.

-Serve the chicken with the tomato mixture on top.

Makes 6 servings. Each serving: 298 calories, 6.5g fat, 40g protein

don't have a meat mallet? I just put the chicken in a large
ziplock bag and pound it with a small frying pan!

dip first in egg...

then in cornmeal mixture. 

Notes: I should have halved the chicken but left them giant, took quite a while to get them cooked thru - also I couldn't pound them down very well. It's much easier and quicker with thinner chicken!

I used red pepper flakes instead of cayenne, and used a whole bag of arugula for the two of us instead of 1 cup for 6 servings like the recipe states. It's just arugula, go for it :). Oh, and I added some fresh mushrooms I had on hand just cuz.

The capers are really salty (in fact I usually rinse them before using), if you omit them make sure to season the arugula/tomato mixture.

This recipe originated in a Sunset magazine - when I tried to look it up online to get a date I only find mention of it in 1996! See, told ya I've been making it for a while now!