Two Hot Dishes!

 

Even though it wasn't Taco Tuesday, I decided to make tacos last night. I served Chip the "traditional" hard shell kind, filling made with Boca Crumbles, while I decided to do something different.  I made up a batch of the Black Bean & Corn Salad with Lime, rolled some up into a 100-Calorie Smart & Delicious Tortilla, topped with fresh Chipotle & Tomato Salsa. Wowie! This was so much better than a plain ol' taco, I ended up having another one for lunch today.



Tonight I decided to make Pretty Stuffed Peppers, second time around for this recipe. I gathered up all of my veggies & spices, got the rice cooking, then looked in the fridge for the cooked black beans. Oops. I only had about 7 ounces, about half of what the recipe called for. What to do? Hmm..how about tossing that leftover taco "meat" into the mix? Sure, what not! That's just what I did, and the result was deee-licous!

By the time Chip got home from work, it was too late to take nice photos of the finished product, so I'm gonna cheat and share some from the first time I made this dish. Let's just pretend they look exactly the same, ok? My Ormond house is so much lighter and brighter than the one down here, the photos are always so much nicer anyway. Below is my version of the recipe as I made it last time, feel free to improvise on the filling depending upon what's in your kitchen.

Pretty Stuffed Peppers

(print-friendly)

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown rice, cooked by your favorite method
• 6 medium bell peppers of your choice; I used 2 red, 2 yellow, 2 green
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 15 ounces cooked black beans; if using canned, rinse and drain well
• 1 cup seeded and chopped fresh tomato*
• 8 slices Cheddar-style soy or rice cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°.  
2. Cut each bell pepper in half lengthwise.  Remove seeds and ribs.  Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil; add the pepper halves and blanch for about 4 minutes.  Drain and pat dry.
3. Heat the broth in a skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and saute for about 3 minutes, then add chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and black pepper.  Saute for 1 minute more.  Add the beans, rice and tomato and saute for 2 minutes.
4. Stuff bell peppers with mixture, packing them well. Top each bell pepper with a slice of cheese.  Place in an 8 x 8-inch baking dish. 
5. Bake peppers, uncovered, for about 20 minutes.  Set the oven to broil, broil peppers for 1 to 2 minutes, until the top is browned and cheese is bubbly.

*For added flavor & spice, you can substitute a can of diced tomatoes w/green chiles (such as Ro*tel) for the chopped fresh tomatoes. I found it also added some needed moisture to the mix.

Note: I'm a bit confused by the serving size of the original recipe..there are 6 peppers, which equals 12 halves, but only 8 slices of cheese. ? However, there was so much filling there's no way it could've fit into fewer peppers. I'm leaving it as is but noting the discrepancy here. I myself just used an extra slice of cheese, put 1/2 slices on some of the smaller peppers.

Nutrition Info:

• Calories:425
• Fat: 8.5
• Protein: 21.2
• Carbohydrate: 69.1
• Sugar 10.7
• Fiber 15.6
• Sodium 787

I think it's time for a nice cup of tea and a book. I haven't been sleeping well, blaming the little bit of stress I've been under, hoping a cup of Sleepytime will do the trick.

Have a beauty-full evening,

Michele

Monday Menu Planning: Week of February 3rd

Good morning, how's everybody feeling today? I'm sure some of you are still smiling about last night's football game, others are likely crying in their coffee cups.  Me? I was in bed by 9 pm, didn't know (or cared) who won until Chip came to bed and reported the results.

In order to insert more structure and discipline into my routine, I'm going back to weekly menu planning. I will also be logging faithfully into my food journal. Both of these habits have been very helpful in the past so I need to stop being lazy and just do the stuff that works!

This week's menu features mainly recipes from PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, which, if you read my other blog, you'll remember that I joined in last summer. If you're new to the plant-based way of eating, or simply need a bit more structure in your diet, I highly recommend this program. There are also a few from The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook by Dr. Neal Barnard and Robyn Webb.  (I'm still crushing on Dr. B., by the way) *wink*

So, without further ado, below is the plan for this week. I've provided links to the recipes (when available) but will also be posting them along with pics and reviews.

• Curried Tomato Lentil Soup
• Black Bean and Corn Salad with Lime
• Brown Rice, Chickpea and Vegetable Soup
• Pretty Stuffed Peppers
• Tacos with Chipotle and Tomato Salsa
• Vegetable Paella
• Italian White Bean, Kale & Potato Stew
• Black Bean Chipotle Burgers

Have a great day!

Michele~

Well, here we are at the end of Week One. I've been following my program about 80% of the time, had a couple of PMS-related Oreo episodes and a glass too many of vino at a certain happy hour, but otherwise I've been doing pretty well.  I guess the scale agrees because I am down 1.8 pounds! Not bad, but I know I can do better. 

I've been thinking back to the last time I lost weight, when I was following Jenny, and pondering what it was about that program that worked so well for me.  Well, duh, it was a no-brainer: Go to meeting. Weigh-in. Buy food. Eat food. Repeat.  I had little to think about, I just heated up the meals, ate the food, and the weight came off.  Though I certainly don't want to go back to that way of eating, and honestly I missed my own cooking, I can't beat the convenience.  So, how to implement that into the way I live & eat now?

I started out by planning my weekly menu, as I've been doing, preparing my meals as usual.  Then, after dinner, I portion out the leftovers into individual containers and label them.  These become lunches for the next couple of days. If there's more left over than I can safely store in the fridge, or if I'm tired of a particular meal (that rarely happens, I don't mind repetition), I freeze those portions instead.  Same thing with breakfast, have a few containers of Tofu Scramble stacked in there.  I also have a big tub of Vegetable Soup to accompany meals or even as a mid-day snack.  Speaking of snacks, I took a cucumber & a head of broccoli,chopped & divided them up into little ziploc bags and labeled each one with the contents and weight so that logging into Sparkpeople would be a breeze.  These went into a handy-dandy Snaptight container (on sale this week at Publix, if you're in my neck of the woods), so easy to grab & go!




Lastly, I mixed up a batch of hummus and divided it into tiny tubs.  Now, when the snack attack hits, I can open my fridge, grab a bag of veggies and a pot of hummus, I'm good to go! You can see there's also a big bin of crunchy apples there, and a fruit bowl of bananas sits on the counter, nearby, perfectly portable health food.  I also have some cooked chickpeas and pink beans in there, easy to toss onto a salad or into a soup for added protein.





Also this week, I baked several sweet potatoes in the oven, used two of them for the Sweet Potato Beginnings breakfasts..



the other I mixed in with my Spicy Vegetarian Chili. So delicious, filled with fiber and nutrients. Dr. McDougall would be proud.




So, that just about wraps up Week One.  I have a simple pasta dish on the menu for tonight, will share that tomorrow so hope to see you then!

Have a beauty-full day,

Michele~