On The Menu: Quinoa & Veggie Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed Peppers are one of my favorite meals. They do take a little bit of time to make, but when they're done they're a hearty and filling meal. They also make awesome lunch leftovers.

Until last week, we had two favorite stuffed pepper recipes that we rotated between: the classic ground beef & rice stuffed pepper, and then a slightly healthier (and fancier!) ground turkey, feta, and quinoa stuffed pepper. Both are delicious. Now we have three favorite recipes.

Last week we tried (and loved): Quinoa & Veggie Stuffed Peppers.

Man oh man these are good. Oh and did I mention that they're only 260 calories each?

The original recipe can be found here. I modified things a little bit - as usual!

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 red onion, chopped

1/2 pound sliced mushrooms

1 cup chopped carrots

7 bell peppers 

(1 cored, seeded and chopped; tops removed from remaining 6 then cored and seeded)

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/4 pound baby spinach

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 cup uncooked quinoa

S&P

1/2 cup roasted cashews

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Cook the quinoa according to package directions. 

(You can work on this while you're making the stuffing)

(I used half white quinoa and half red quinoa - so pretty!)

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. 

Add onion and peppers and cook, stirring occasionally until transparent.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil. 

Submerge the (cored & tops removed) peppers for 2 minutes.

Let them sit in a glass pyrex dish while you continue making the stuffing.

Add carrots and then mushrooms to the onions & peppers, and cook until softened.

(Time saver - buy pre-chopped carrots!)

 Add parsley and spinach.

Let spinach wilt then stir in cinnamon, cumin and cooked quinoa and toss gently to combine. 

(Side note: cinnamon & cumin seemed crazy to me when I read the recipe - believe me, they are an awesome addition! Just do it! Your taste buds will thank you.)

Add salt, pepper and cashews and cook 1 to 2 minutes more. 

Divide quinoa mixture evenly among remaining 6 bell peppers, gently packing it down and making sure to fully fill each pepper. Top each pepper with a little bit of cheese. Because cheese makes everything better. Bake for about 30 minutes.

When they're done, eat and enjoy! 

And if you're hungry enough for a second pepper, go for it and don't even feel bad about it!

On The Menu: Tilapia with Peppers and Olives

The past few weeks have been full of new dinner recipes for us! Typically I try to only work in one or two new recipes into our meal plan each week since they tend to take more time to prepare, but for some reason I've been on a new-recipe kick lately!

On the menu for last night was: Tilapia with Peppers and Olives (over Herbed Basmati Rice). I incorporated three recipes into our meal - I promise it's not as complicated as it sounds! In fact, the whole meal was very easy to prepare and didn't take very long at all.

First up: the fish! The original Tilapia recipe (found here) calls for the fish to be pan fried. Our kitchen stove doesn't have a vent over it, so whenever we cook anything, the smell permeates the entire house - awesome for things like cookies; bad for things like fish. So, I decided to bake the tilapia instead (it helps with the smell, trust me!).

I did a quick search online and decided on a Paula Deen recipe (found here). I adapted it a little bit: I used slightly less butter, cooked the fish in a glass Pyrex, and found that our fillets needed 20 minutes instead of 12 (maybe they were thicker?).

Next, I got started on the rice. I think the original intention of Tilapia + Peppers was to limit the amount of carbs in the meal, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that last night...so we added rice.

I did another quick search and decided to try my hand at Ina Garten's Herbed Basmati Rice. I took a few more liberties with this recipe (seeing a trend here?). First, we have a rice cooker that I absolutely LOVE, so I cooked the rice in that instead of in a pan. The rice cooker is easy and fast and turns itself off when the rice is done so you don't overcook it (genius!).

I added the rice, water, salt, and butter to the cooker and let it go to work. At this point I went on with prepping the pepper part of our dinner, but I'll  wrap up the rice part now so I don't confuse you!

Since I decided to make this side dish on a whim, I didn't have a bunch of the herbs listed in the recipe on hand. I only had fresh parsley and dried herbs. You gotta make due with what you have! So, once the rice was done, I added some chapped parsley, dried rosemary, and some S&P. I let the rice sit a bit while we prepped the rest of dinner.

Now on to the last part - the peppers! This is where I actually followed the original recipe pretty exactly (except for the part where I cooked the fish differently - ha!). Here are the ingredients and instructions:

Tilapia With Peppers and Olives

Ingredients

1 tablespoons olive oil

S&P

2 bell peppers (1 red, 1 green), thinly sliced

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup pitted green olives (sliced lengthwise)
{We used garlic olives from the olive bar at our super market and they were perfect}

1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Cook the peppers and onion, stirring often, 5 minutes.

Stir in the olives, parsley, lime juice, and S&P into the vegetables. 

Serve with the fish.

I just love brightly colored veggies! Don't they just look healthy?

You might be able to tell that I also added in some orange pepper - the red, green, and purple were begging for it!

Scoop some rice into the bottom of a low-bowl, add a few scoops of veggies and peppers, and top with tilapia!

This meal was SO good. We were both thoroughly impressed with it! The flavor profile is Mediterranean - the lime and the herbs keep the dish bright and light, and the olives give each bite a good tangy taste. We'll be making this again for sure!

On The Menu: Southwestern Chicken Salad

Last night we tried a new recipe for dinner: Southwestern Chicken Salad. This was originally a lunch recipe, but we made enough for 2 dinners and 2 lunches. The leftovers were awesome today!

It was healthy, fast to prepare and delicious!

I just love rotisserie chicken - talk about an easy ingredient!

Oh and did I mention that there practically isn't any clean up? We literally made the salads straight into bowls & tupperware containers for work.

We were a little rebellious and added in tomatoes and sprouts. We also used mixed greens in addition to just romaine. That's kind of what I love about salads - you can add whatever you love and the salad only gets better!

Our only downfall was the dressing. I followed the recipe almost exactly but felt like the lime flavor was too tart and the overall consistency was a little too thick. I think we'd definitely make this salad again, but in the future I'll probably plan to look up a few dressing recipes and see if I can make modifications.

Southwestern Chicken Salad

(Makes 2 servings) 

Ingredients:

6 cups romaine lettuce, chopped

1 cup rotisserie chicken, shredded

1 red bell pepper, sliced

1/2 cup canned black beans

1/3 cup greek yogurt

3 tbsp lime juice

1/4 tsp chili powder

salt & pepper 

Directions:

Divide the lettuce, chicken, bell pepper and beans into two dishes.

In a small bowl, whisk together: yogurt, lime juice, chili powder, and s&p.

Top salad with dressing.

Optional: add tomatoes, sprouts, or any other salad toppings you love!

Recipe courtesy of Robin Long & Drew Parisi!

Grilled Romaine

Ever heard of grilling romaine hearts? I definitely hadn't until a few weeks ago when a friend of mine posted a picture of them.

Yum.

Taylor and I decided to try to make them last night. We've been trying really hard to get our "greens" in with each meal and love trying new recipes and ways to cook veggies.

We started by cutting of  some of the top and bottom of the hearts (just to get rid of some of the leafy top, and tough bottom). Next we sliced the hearts lengthwise (like the picture above). In a small bowl, we whisked  together some olive oil, fresh rosemary, and s&p, and then brushed the marinade over each heart.

The hearts went cut-side down on the grill for 2 minutes, and then we flipped them on the other side for two more minutes. We sprinkled on some parmesan cheese at the very end.

The grilled romaine hearts were surprisingly good! Some of the leaves were a little soggy around the edges but were still crisp in the middle. All in all, I think we'd make this again!

On The Menu: Chicken Salad

Chicken Salad was on the menu for dinner last. It was a new recipe for us and it was a TOTAL success!

Seriously y'all, I am in love with this salad.

I don't know why but chicken salad has sounded so good to me lately. I had it a few weeks ago from Whole Foods as part of a little "adult" lunch box: chicken salad, crackers, cheese cubes, and grapes...and it was awesome! I've been craving it ever since.

About halfway through our meal prep last night, I learned that Taylor doesn't really like chicken salad - whoops! He was sweet though and said he would definitely try it and explained that he just really doesn't like the mayo part of chicken salad. I decided to go light on the mayo in hopes that he would discover just how delicious chicken salad can be.

Like the Lemony Scones & Beauty Bars I made this weekend, both recipes are from Drew Parisi and Robin Long. It's technically a lunch recipe, but we made it for dinner (and even had enough leftover for our lunches today!).

Chicken Salad

(Makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

1/2 red onion, diced

2 cups grapes, halved

2 celery stalks, diced

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup mayo

s&p

Directions:

Mix all ingredients and serve over a bed of lettuce!

Recipe Modifications: We used about half the amount of chicken (because I accidentally didn't buy enough!), but it ended up totally okay. We used green grapes, but I think red would have been okay too. We also coarsely chopped up the grapes since the halves seemed a bit large. Lastly, we also used slightly less than the 1/2 cup of mayo.

The verdict? Taylor loved it! I think he was used to those really thick, gooey chicken salads that you get on a sandwich - this wasn't like that at all. It was light and fresh and healthy. I loved it too.

We filled a bowl with a bed of greens: some spring mix, some romaine, and some arugula. We squeezed a little lemon over the greens and sprinkled on some salt & pepper. We added a few scoops of chicken salad, and then topped the dish off with sprouts. We love sprouts. So yummy!

This recipe is for sure being added in to our regular dinner rotation.

On The Menu: Winter Fruit Salad

We made this fruit salad for dessert last night. It has oranges, mangoes, kiwis, bananas, kumquats, and grapes. It's technically a "winter" salad - the recipe called for a pomegranate seeds but I couldn't find them anywhere. I hadn't ever added mangoes or kiwis to fruit salads before - they were an awesome addition!

On the menu tonight: quinoa with a red wine reduction sauce, roasted broccoli, and grilled chicken

On the menu tonight: quinoa with a red wine reduction sauce, roasted broccoli, and grilled chicken

On The Menu: Gourmet Turkey Roll-Ups

Tried to make a new recipe for dinner tonight - Gourmet Turkey Roll-Ups - and kind of failed. The turkey wouldn't roll so the end product is turkey slices with avocado, goat cheese, mustard, and micro greens on a bed of salad. I'm sure it's still healthy even if it looks sad! #thepbp #healthyeating

930pm isn't too late for a salad with grilled chicken, right?

930pm isn't too late for a salad with grilled chicken, right?

Trying to get as many colors into dinner as possible!

Trying to get as many colors into dinner as possible!