Semi-Southwest Stuffed Peppers

I love southwest stuffed peppers with tomatoes and black beans. However, Mike doesn't like tomatoes or black beans so I set out to find a stuffed pepper substitute. I thought they turned out pretty well. I used this recipe as a sort of guideline.

Ingredients:

6 large bell peppers
1 large can pinto beans in chili sauce
1 mini can of corn, drained
1/4 cup onion
1 cup of long grain rice, uncooked
2 cups chicken broth
1 lb mixed ground beef and ground pork
1 tablespoon hamburger seasoning
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1/2 tablespoon cilantro
1 jalapeno, diced small
grated colby jack cheese to taste
sour cream to taste
green onions to taste

Steps:

1. In a large stockpot, add the 2 cups broth and 1 cup of uncooked rice. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer about 40-45 minutes until rice is soft. Fluff with a fork.
2. Cut the stems off the bell peppers and remove the ribs.  Place upright in a casserole dish.
3. Brown the ground meat. Season with cilantro, cumin, crushed red pepper and hamburger seasoning. Drain off the grease.
4. Mix together cooked meat, cooked rice, corn, pinto beans, onion and jalapeno. Stuff this mixture into the bell peppers.
5. Bake peppers at 350F for 15 minutes or until hot.
6. Top peppers with cheese and return to the oven for 5 minutes or until melted.
7. Serve with sour cream and green onions.

I served my spicy apple pie for dessert.

Stashbusting #9: New England Style Pierogi Dinner

When you work seven days a week your days start to run together and Monday quickly turns into Tuesday. And its quickly becoming Wendesday....but here it is. This week's stash busting recipe from my Woman's Day Cookbook. As usual, the recipe is as I made it not as printed

Ingredients:


1 box of pierogis (potato and onion)
1 tbs cajun seasoning
1/2 medium head cabbage, shredded/torn
2 ears of frozen corn, cut in half
4 Italian sausages, sliced
4 tbsp butter

Steps:
1. Saute pierogis over low-,medium heat.
2. Meanwhile boil one cup of water and the seasoning.
3. Add cabbage, corn, sausages and 2 Tbsps butter. Cover and cook about 20 minutes, turning occasionall.
4. Add cooked pierogis to pot along with reaining butter. Toss to mix.

The verdict?

I loved it, and I'm not a big pierogi fan. I love cabbage, corn on the cob and butter so this dish was perfect for me.

Mike requested the leftovers for lunch (it beat out baked ham, homemade burritos, his momma's chili, and sweet bologna sandwiches) which is a pretty good rating. Its second to "When are you making  this again?" and on the opposite end of the spectrum from "Do you plan on making this again? And he's not a cabbage person.

Try it and let me know what you think. If you have it, the recipe calls for Old Bay instead of the cajun seasoning.

Stasu Busting Monday #6: Gimme Some Gumbo!

I love gumbo. I used to eat two platesful when the cafeteria at my college would serve it! Since I graduated last December I haven't had my beloved gumbo, so I knew I had to make it soon.

This recipe is adapted from a Better Homes and Garden Cookbook that my mother gave me when I first left for college. In my opinion the only thing that would have made it better was the addition of shrimp.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup all purpouse flour
1/3 cup cooking oil
3 cups water
12 oz smoked sausage links, sliced
2 cups frozen okra
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chpped green pepper
1 stalk chopped celery
4 cloves minced garlic
salt and pepper
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
3 cups hot cooked jasmine rice

Steps:
1. Make a roux by stiring together flour and oil until smooth in a mde saucepan. Cook over med-high heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to med and cook 15 more minutes or until a darkred-brown. Cool
2. Placce water in a crockpot, stir in roux, sausage, vegetables and seasoning.
3. Cook in low heat for about 7 hours. Serve over hot rice

Stash Busting Monday #5: Nacho Cheese Beef Bake

This month's Taste of Home was packed with delicious looking recipes (causing me to add more recipes to my stash, but we're busting one of them so it's all gravy). This is the first one I decided to make, partly from the yummy picture and partly from the excess of frozen hamburger meat hanging out in my fridge. I'm presenting the recipe as I prepared it, not as it is in the magazine.

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked egg noodles
1lb ground beef
1 can condensed nacho cheese soup
4oz can chopped green chiles
handul of cheddar cheese
2 cups crushed tortilla chips
ranch dressing
1/2 chopped onion
shredded lettuce

1. Cook noodles according to package. Also, brown and drain meat.
2. Return meat to pan and stir in soup, chilies, onion. Bring to a boil, reduce hear and simmer uncovered 10 minutes.
3. Stir in noodles, transfer to 11x7 casserole dish, sprinkle with handful of shredded cheese and bale at 350F for 15 minutes.
4. Top with tortilla chips and shredded lettuce. Drizzle with ranch dressing.

This was as easy as hamburger helper but tasted better! My huhsband gave to two thumbs up and has already requested it again.

Stash Busting Monday's #4: Randy's Turkey Burgers

(I know, this should be number 5 but it was a holiday and my parents were up from SC!)

This recipe wasn't given to me, exactly but I watched a friend make them and then tasted them. YUM! So I wanted to try and recreate the recipe.

Makes  4 burgers

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
1 cup bread crumbs
blackened cajun seasoning
buffalo sauce
4 slices of garlic/cheese texas toast
colby cheese, sliced

1. Combine turkey, bread crumbs and cajun seasoning. Shape into four patties. Grill until cooked thoroughy.
2. Toast Texas Toast according to directions.
3. Cut each piece of toast in half, to make 8 pieces.
4. Using the Texas Toast as buns, assemble sandwiches with cheese and buffalo sauce.

ENJOY!

Stash Busting Monday #3: Mustard Glazed Pork Chops

This recipe from BHG has been hanging out in my "Try Me" notebook since April so I thought I'd give it a whirl!

I'll post the recipe with my modifications and note where it differs from the original

Ingredients:

• 4 bone-in pork chops
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion chopped into wedges
• 1/2 cinnamon applesauce (o called for 1/2 cup apricot perserves and 1/2 tsp nutmeg)
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/4 cup water
• 1TBSP. spicy mustard

1. Season pork chops with salt and pepper. In a skillet heat olive oil, add pork and onions. Cook 3 minutes, flip, cook 3 more minutes
2. Combine applesauce, water, paprkia and mustard. Pour over pork. Reduce hear and cook covered ten minutes.

3. Serve and enjoy!

The recipe suggests serving with roasted sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes. I served it with leftover macaroni salad.

I thought the porkchops were fabulous, but Mike didn't care for them.