*Healthy* Stuffed Pepper Soup

Thank you, Pinterest, for introducing me to Skinnytaste!  This blogger has all kinds of healthy recipes, and most of them are feasible with limited ingredients so you really feel like a master chef while trying to keep yourself fed!

Amazing!!

Well, in any case, everyone seems to be pinning this recipe for Stuffed Pepper Soup.  I couldn't resist trying it since I love stuffed peppers, but hate making them!

Ingredients - I tweaked them a little...

1 lb ground beef
2 small green bell peppers (chopped)
1 lg red and 1 lg yellow bell pepper (chopped)
1 cup finely diced onion
2-3 garlic cloves (diced/pressed)
2 (14.5 oz) cans of diced tomatoes
2 (8oz) cans of tomato sauce
1 box (32 oz) of low sodium chicken broth
Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper to taste
3 cups of cooked rice (Jasmine for me, but there are healthier options, of course.  Almost used Quinoa...  almost!)

Desilu (left) and Schatzi (right) love when I work with bell peppers.  I always give them some of the oddly shaped dices since I don't like how odd they look. I know I'm weird, but the dogs definitely love the benefits of my cooking!

Basically, you brown the meat, add the onions, and garlic.  Then add in your peppers and cook it up until everything looks done (browned meat, al dente peppers, clear onions...).

 Add your sauce, tomatoes, broth and seasonings.

Let the soup simmer for at least 30 minutes.  I added a lot of broth because I added lots of peppers and probably a little more than a pound of meat.

I'm not a broth person, so I love condensing the soup down as much as possible.

I cooked the rice while simmering the soup.

You don't need the rice, but if you're like me and like a heartier soup, then it definitely helps.  I just served up the soup, added a heaping spoonful of rice, and stirred it up.

Also, as a side note, I barely salted the soup because I knew I was salting the rice water and didn't want to double dip on the saltiness.  I'm not much of a salt person, but it's healthier that way, anyway!

One bowl is enough!  This soup is so delicious, you'll be tempted for more, but it's filling, so it's all good!

30 Minute Meal - I timed it!!!

Yes, a lot of generics.  Spend your own money!

6:00PM - Grab your ingredients.  

6:02 - Measure the correct measurements for your rice, start the salted water to boil.  (I really love Jasmine rice, but your fav would do well too, I'm sure.)

6:04 -  Heat oil in a large wok or pot.  Once hot, saute your pressed garlic for 5-10 seconds to start releasing the aroma.  Yum!

6:05 - Add your ground beef.  I usually double up the recipe because this also makes for great leftovers.  So, here you'll see two pounds of beef, two bell peppers, an entire head of cabbage (it cooks down more than you'd think), and the appropriate spices.

6:10 - Water boiling yet?  If so, add your rice and turn it down to a simmer.  (Obviously, follow your own directions or use a rice steamer.  Make a plan.)

 6:15 - hopefully by now your meat is nicely browned.  I don't drain it because the liquid (if there's any) thickens later.  At this point, add your cabbage and peppers.  Peppers that aren't green make the best presentation, but I take what's on sale/in the house!  Cook until tender.

6:20 - this picture is before the cabbage cooked all the way down, it was about halfway here.  Once your veggies are tender, add your soy sauce, water/corn starch as directed, and let it simmer for the last ten minutes to thicken your sauce.

6:25 - rice should be done.  Turn off the heat, add some butter (or whatever), fluff it, and let it sit (covered)

6:30 - Serve and enjoy.  :)

6:40, fight your significant other for seconds!!

White Girl Tamales!

Okay, I'm super excited about this recipe.  See?  There's this abuela who rides in a broke down green Chevy Astro around our neighborhood selling tamales out of the backseat.  The problem?  There is no rhyme nor reason to when she'll drive by.  (No, mom, the problem is not that I'm buying food out of a random stranger's van.  Stranger danger only applies to candy.)   Unlike the ice cream trucks that drive by at least once every hour all day long, all year long, the tamale abuela is much more of a rarity.  Unfortunate, because her tamales rock my socks!  So, when I found this recipe, I couldn't wait to try it.  Sure, I'm all for authenticity, but I know my attempts couldn't stack up, so white girl tamales all around!!

The problem with this recipe is that it wanted me to make my cornbread from scratch.  I understand that some people may find this to be a positive, but knowing that I have a box of Jiffy Muffin Mix, or something similar means I plan on being lazy and just adding the ingredients I need.  My surprise?  For once, there's no Jiffy in the pantry.  However, I did have a box of Krusteaz Natural Honey Cornbread .  Double bonus, since you only need to add water to make it a mix!

I started by chopping the pepper, and spreading it throughout the bottom of a well greased pie dish.  Truth?  I used a whole pepper, and I probably should have used two pie plates since mine are small.  However, I figured I was going for the "cram it in" approach, and all is fair in love and tamales!  I then made my taco meat the way I normally would.  I just added taco seasoning instead of many of the other ingredients, since taco mix generally contains all of them anyway.  Plus, we buy McCormick Taco Seasoning Mix in the bulk size, so it only makes sense to keep with what you've got instead of starting from scratch every time.

Speaking of things already in the house, I still had two-thirds of a block of pepper jack cheese. I just shredded the whole thing and added it to the cornbread mix. I didn't measure it - figured it needed to get used, and who hates cheesy cornbread/tamales anyway?   I followed the directions after that, I swear! I put part of the mix over the peppers and tried to spread it out as best I could. Turns out my mix was very thick (what with all the cheese and all), so I had to spread it out with my fingers, otherwise the peppers kept moving with the mix.

 

I then added the completed taco meat/salsa mixture, and then topped it all off with the rest of the cornbread mix.  I baked it per the recipe, although it did finish up about 3 minutes quicker than expected.  Could be my mix, could be how it was overflowing anyway.  Who knows?  I'm just saying know your oven and watch your food!

Now, the tricky part...  You're supposed to invert this on to a plate.  Now, I can't say that's the scary part.  I make pull apart (monkey bread) rolls and kick butt at inverting that mess, but if you remember back about two paragraphs, this mix was very thick, and it was difficult to spread.  I feared that my tamale pie would be three separate layers, and the taco meat layer would send the bottom (now top) layer flying.  Like any good wife, I connived convinced my husband that he should try the inversion process and I'd supervise take pictures.  Lucky duck - it worked like a charm!

It might not be the prettiest tamale you've ever seen, but I do believe I qualified that this was a white girl tamale and there was no holds barred!  We sliced it up and served it with lettuce - I'm not sure what my shredded lettuce obsession is, just go with it!  Thomas said it could have used something else, maybe more salsa or some guacamole, but I thought for a fake tamale it was pretty darn good (and it held its shape pretty well)!

Differing Opinions, or why this would never be an Italian Food blog…

I’ve been meaning to make this “lasagna” recipe for a while.  In fact, I made a similar one about a year ago, with spinach, but it wasn’t as nice because I didn’t know what I was doing.  However, I found a great Pampered Chef recipe that dropped the spinach, and I was sold.

Thomas is not a fan of marinara sauce, whereas I LOVE red sauce dishes.  It’s hard to make Italian in our house because of the Northern Italy vs. Southern Italy mentality.
Usually, I’m able to connive Thomas to eat some form of Bolognese, with its hearty meat and red wine taste.  I usually start with a chunky garden vegetable sauce from a jar, add two cans of diced, roasted tomatoes, 2 lbs of browned ground beef, two bell peppers, and whatever various spices/garlic/onions/red wine that I can find in the house.  It all starts with the meat (and my beloved PC Mix and Chop) and ends in a lot of simmering, if I have a good hour or two to spare.

It’s not fancy, but by the time I’m done, there’s relatively little marinara flavor, or even sauce, left in the gravy, and Thomas can stomach it.
Now, my mother has a phenomenal recipe for lasagna, and if I had the patience, I would type it up for you.  However, A) I’m trying to only link recipes here since nothing comes from my own head, and B) only my mother can make that recipe.  No one else is allowed (unless related, of course)!    ;) 
Lasagna takes a lot of work.  While my mother has the patience to make up one or two lasagnas at a time, freeze them, and enjoy them at will, I can barely stretch my patience long enough to watch an hour of TV.  (Seriously, how did I ever watch TV without a phone or internet linked device in my hand?)

Lasagna roll ups, however, are a different story.  You can use whatever sauce you’d like, you make up your noodles and the filling, then distribute.  

 Roll them up, place them in 1/2 of your sauce.

Bake, make some cheesy garlic bread, salad, or whatever sides you’d like, and enjoy within the hour.

They’re pockets of yummy goodness.  Thomas liked them, and they made four really hearty leftover lunches. 

On a scale of apples to unicorns, I’d rate them as awesome!  I may never be able to convince Thomas that we should eat more red sauce, but I’ll take the little wins whenever I can.

The Cheat

Okay, for Cinco de Mayo, I cheated.  To be fair, I did create a Pampered Chef recipe...  But to be honest, it's a recipe I've done before with a few different mutations.  I made the (in)famous Taco Ring.  I've made it before with spinach artichoke dip, or with artichoke jalepeno dip - both of which were pre-made and store bought for my convenience.  The point is that I made a form of Mexican food for a Mexican holiday, and since it was the second time we've had Mexican food in four days, I figured it was okay to cheat.

I took my own pictures this time.  While they are never as pretty as the ones online, I can at least claim them as my own.  There are as authentic and imperfect as I am, and they're from my own honest-to-goodness, unfaked, 100% real, messy kitchen.

So, of course I browned the meat, using my mix and chop (which I've had forever and adore).   I then flayd my cresent rolls and distributed the seasoned ground beef with peppers and then topped with cheese.  I pulled the sides in to create an oval wreath.  Had I had a nice round stone, I would have totally made a perfect circle.  Instead, I improvised!

After 22 minutes, the meal was ready.  I served it up with lettuce, salsa, and guacamole.  It wasn't fancy, but it was quick and delicious.  And, since I was just eating the leftover chicken breast from my 30 minute chicken night for lunch, I probably could have eaten the whole ring by myself.  

As it stands, there are no leftovers, but I certainly had some help to polish it off!

All in all, some good eats.  Happy eating!