Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

I am starting to go through my cupboards to use up all the items that have been sitting there a while. Despite what people may think, even dry pantry items have an expiration date, especially if they are bulk items that are exposed to the air.

As I was doing this, I came upon a wonderful mason jar of quinoa and knew that it was exactly what I was in the mood for. This meal is fresh, fast and delicious! Not to mention, it is dairy and gluten free and the fact that it is 353 calories* a serving doesn't hurt either.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
4 Large Green Peppers (about size of grapefruit or softball)
3TB EVOO
5 Cloves of Garlic
2 Carrots
2c Mushrooms (Cremini and/or Shitake)
1tsp Worcestershire Sauce
3TB Hoisen Sauce
1c Dried Quinoa
1 Jar of Spaghetti Sauce (I prefer Newman's Own)
4 slices of veggy cheese

Instead of using a dutch oven, my stock pot is oven safe.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Pot needs to be large enough to stand the green peppers next to one another and be completely submerged. 
3. Meanwhile cook quinoa by placing in a quart sauce pan with 1 1/2c of water and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Then prepare peppers by cutting the tops off (reserving) and removing the seeds from the inner core and discard. When the water comes to a boil, submerge the peppers under the water, cover and cook for five minutes.  Drain and set aside uncovered
5. Chop the remaining produce including green pepper tops, heat EVOO over medium heat and saute veggies until soft then add Worcestershire Sauce.
6. Add quinoa to veggies then add hoisen sauce and heat for 5 minutes. 
7. Turn up heat to high, add 2/3 jar of sauce to veggies and remove from heat when it just starts to boil.
8. Use a small amount of remaining sauce to coat the bottom of a dutch oven. Transfer green peppers and divide quinoa mixture among peppers then top with remaining sauce.
9. Cover the dutch oven back for 25 minutes. Remove lid, top each pepper with cheese and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes. 
10. Let peppers rest for five minutes and serve hot. Enjoy!

My lovely husband: "I was so sad when I was done eating because it was all gone."

 *Calorie count based on recipe information entered into MyFitnessPal.

Cordon Bleu Casserole to Fight the Falltime Blues...

This fall has been busy between balancing every day life and picking apples, transforming said apples into something yummy and getting my house ready for the event of the year... Skye's Halloween bash!

 First, I had to get the inside of my house ready by finishing up some much overdue projects. The primary being that, even though we have been in our house since May, we still did not have a drop of color on our walls. More than that, we still had not organized it in a meaningful way... Maybe not so much meaningful, but it was super cluttered.

Our 4 month old kitten, Monty (left), and 2 year old cat, Jade, watching the leaves blow by

On top of that, I have a list of started but not completed projects. One of which was one that I had been meaning to finish up since early summer when I bought this awesome mirror at a yard sale for $5. I had searched high and low for the perfect accents, and I knew I wanted shutters but, since Pinterest became so popular, it was harder to find shutters that people were just giving away rather than charging an arm and a leg. That was until my local library was redoing some renovations and threw theirs out. They were too perfect for me not to snatch them up. So, after painting our room a nice "succulent" green and sealing the shutters in a clear gloss, I arranged them like this in our TV room...

Next, I had to find a way to entertain a dozen or so preschoolers without breaking the bank and that could be done out in the yard. The first think that came to mind was bean bag toss. So, I stacked a couple boxes on one another, taped them to a large piece of card board as well as garden stakes. Then we reinforced it with nuts and a couple bolts, glued on pumpkin faces and sewed some lentils into flashy cloth for an awesome bean bag toss, which was a great hit with all the kids even though I had other things planned. It probably did not hurt that I had about ten different variations of sugary foods for them to OD on.

 

Though the day was awesome and we could not ask for better weather, today we are back to feeling what the season really has to offer, which is chilling mornings and getting dark early. To add to that, we're actually expecting to feel the effects of Hurricane Sandy in the next couple of days. With days like these, what better than to cook something warm. In fact, I have been craving chicken cordon bleu. I had seen pins for a casserole, which would be way more convenient that preparing it the traditional way. However, when I pulled up the recipes I found that many involved throwing canned chicken with canned condensed soup and that did not sound appetizing at all. However, my heart was set on having this casserole and I came up with a way to achieve the same thing, only better because it would have fresh veggies and is just as fast!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole 

2c Chicken Stock

1 package of Better Than Cream Cheese, Chive flavored

2TB Dijon Mustard

3c Chicken, cooked and chopped

2 Stalks of Celery, finely chopped

1 Bunch of Asparagus, cut into 1" pieces

1/2c baked ham, chunked

Gluten free bread crumbs

1.  Preheat oven to 350.
2. Heat stock until boiling, remove from heat and mix in "Cream Cheese," mix in mustard and set aside.
3. Toss together chicken, celery and asparagus in an 8x8 pan then pour reserved sauce over and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
4. Bake for 30 minutes until crumbs are toasted. Let sit for 5 minutes and serve with rice or on top of egg noodles.

This was really fast and very fresh tasting. Being very simple, it was easy to throw together; a plus since my husband and I were exhausted from the party, but, once again, totally worth it. Also, I entered this recipe into my Fitness Pal App and it says there are only 322 calories a serving (definite score!). Though I grew up eating the traditional (less healthy version), but I think this will be my "go to" recipe from now on. I hope you enjoy it as well and I think that it would be good with broccoli or carrots in addition to or instead of the asparagus. Enjoy!