Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Day 82 : Quick Stuffed Peppers




As I was driving home I was, as usual, running through the contents of the fridge and pantry in my mind to see what I had on hand to make into a quick dinner. I thought of one of the last things left in the freezer from the summer CSA share, a bag of frozen green pepper halves. I cut them in half, blanched them for 3 minutes, and froze them back in August. so when I got home, here is what I did.
1. Followed the package directions on the ten minute brown rice and made 4 servings.
2. While that was cooking, I took 6 small half peppers out of the freezer, put them in a covered dish and into the microwave on auto defrost - when they came out, I blotted them with a paper towel - they were a little watery because they had been frozen - but they retained their lovely green color.
3. I chopped an onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, and began to sautee them in about a tsp of olive oil
4. Pulled the leftover chopped canned tomatoes from the Minestrone soup out of the fridge and opened, drained and rinsed a can of black beans
5. grated about a cup or so of low fat cheddar cheese
When the onions were soft and brown, I mixed everything together in the pan with the onions & garlic; rice, tomatoes, beans, cheese, then scooped it into the pepper shells in the covered dish and put it back in the microwave, covered, for 10 minutes on 70% power -
Made a quick salad of Spinach, sliced apple, dried cranberries, and feta cheese -voila - dinner.

4 comments:

  1. Another family favorite!
    I usually stuff mine and freeze them stuffed during pepper season..
    I almost always use brown rice, but this year I added wheat berries (from my csa).
    I almost always add in meat, but this recipe is inspiring me to go with beans next time!
    I think that this may be the year I make a concerted effort at having at least one vegetarian meal per week...I know it's a small step, but it is a step!

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  2. Sounds like a goof idea to me.
    Equivalent emissions savings from weekly dietary changes: If every American had one meat-free meal per week, it would be the same as taking more than 5 million cars off our roads. Having one meat-free day per week would be the same as taking 8 million cars off American roads.
    http://www.edf.org/article.cfm?contentid=6604

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  3. love stuffed peppers and enjoying reading your blog, Karen!

    here's another variation for stuffed peppers; it's what i usually do. i add crumbled tofu to the basmati cooked rice and sometimes, sauteed mushrooms and chopped tomatoes and frozen peas some parmesian or romano cheese tossed in or whatever else you have that you think would work! you can also grate some good cheddar cheese on top right before taking out of the oven...

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  4. Thanks for reading. I will try your stuffed pepper recipe next time - I am always looking for ways to use tofu, and frozen peas sounds like a good idea too.

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