Wild About Stuffed Peppers

I have found the best side dish ever. So easy. So good. Mini-peppers stuffed with laughing cow cheese wedges.

And I am also really into oven roasted broccoli. Here are my two faves getting roasted in the oven together at 400 for 20-25 minutes. The broccoli is plain with some oil sprayed on for good measure, serve salted and peppered.
 

The peppers are great as is, or with some oregano on the cheese before stuffing in, but the other night I wanted to be fancy.
 

So I mixed the laughing cow cheese wedges with soyrizo and spooned it in.
 

Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes or so. Also a note about the pepper, these are hot house grown from costco. While not organic, the hot house seems to be a pretty good alternative to organic. Most (or at least BC's and costco suppliers) use ladybugs instead of pesticides and are hydroponic, so no chemical fertilizers running off.
 

Super delicious!

Slowcooker Veggie Chili

Great for football days and using up pantry items. I put rice in this to make a complete protein.

Slowcooker Veggie Chili
Makes 6+ cups

1 cup dried red beans
1 cup short brown rice
3 cups water or stock
1 can stewed tomatoes
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
1.5 tablespoons chile powder
1.5 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tsp red pepper flakes
Vegetables - I used 1 yellow pepper and 1 zucchini, you could use two peppers, mushrooms, corn or whatever you've got.
Salt and pepper

Optional garnishes:
Chips, cheddar, sour cream/yogurt, chipotle tabsco, green onions, avocado.

Turn slowcooker on high, add beans and 1 cup of hot water. Give the beans a good 30 minutes in the slow cooker alone if you can (not totally necessary, but it's good to give the beans a head start). Chop up onion, other vegetables, and measure everything else. Add more water to the slow cooker, then tomatoes, then spices, then onions, then rice, the vegetables, salt and pepper. Stir it all up. Let slow cook for 4 hours on high or up to 8 hours on low. Most of the liquid will be gone when it's ready, but test a bean just in case and add salt if you desire.

Green Curry Revisited

This might have been the perfect curry. The sweet heat ratio was spot on and the combination of vegetables worked amazingly well. And I have to say it's definitely better on white jasmine rice. The aromatics of the rice match the curry perfectly. Also Elizabeth introduced me to brocolette, which I'd never had before and now adore. It's like broccoli, but with a stem that is thinner and reminiscent of a green bean or asparagus. Now that I've discovered the perfect ratio of sweet heat, I think next up will be getting the curry to look greener.

 

Vegetable Green Curry on Jasmine Rice
Serves 4

1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
6 cremini mushrooms
1 bunch brocolette
3 sprigs basil (thai is best if you have it)
1 can coconut milk
1.5 Tablespoons of Mae Ploy Green Curry paste
1 Tablespoon Sugar*
2 Cups Jasmine Rice (you will probably have leftover rice. Technically one cup should be enough for 4, but it never is, and 1.5 is annoying to make.)

Add rice and 2 cups water to rice cooker. Chop all your vegetables in to large bite sizes. In a saucepan, warm the coconut milk, add curry and mix well. Add sugar, stir to mix in, then add vegetables and a 1 Tablespoon of water. Simmer for ten minutes or until vegetables are a bit soft. Add basil, stir for one more minute or until rice is done. Serve curry over rice.

Ideas for leftover rice - fried rice, sauteed with garlic and olive oil, rice balls, or see the post i did on lentils.

* A note about the sugar. Elizabeth had this awesome sugar, which I had never seen before and was quite impressed with. It was especially good in this curry. It struck me as kind of a mix between brown and white sugar, kind of like sugar in the raw. It's Wholesome Sweetener's Fair Trade Organic Sugar, see picture. Incidentally, this is the same company that makes the blue agave syrup, which is delicious, but not as effective in the curry recipe.