Italian-Style Stuffed Peppers

My children can be so picky at times and the older they get the harder it is for me to get them to try different dishes these days.  I guess they have it honest because most of my family are picky eaters as well.  Like my dad for instance, he won't eat any kind of seafood.  Nor will he try anything new.  The same thing with my mom.  Since she has been visiting the girls and I more frequently, she has opened up a little.  Oh, trust me it's not easy!  She complains the whole time until she taste's it.  LOL!  Even then she'll say, it's not too bad but I still don't like it.  Secret be told, I think she don't wanna admit that her daughter cooks better than her!  Hahahaha!  Shhhhhh...don't tell her I said that.  :/

I have always wanted to try Stuffed Red Peppers.  My foodie friends are always talking about how delish this dish is and finally back in September 2012 I finally tried my hand at this.  One of my fellow foodie friends, Bob, gave be a brief list of items that I needed and I just took it from there.  I kind of did my own thing and followed blending and cooking instructions from a blog called dashingdish.com.  By the way, you guys should check it out.  There is some delicious recipes on there.  OH MY...it was soooooooo good ya'll!  My mom was visiting us at the time.  The girls spent the Summer with her and she brought them back home.  She even enjoyed it to my surprise.  Of course she had a complaint, which was why didn't I put more filling in hers!  LOL!  As for my lovely girls, the youngest took her meat mixture out of the pepper, gave her pepper to my mom and just ate it with her salad.  The grated Parmesan is missing from the picture below.  Sorry about that but I was moving too fast.

Ingredients:
-1 lb ground beef (I used a little more than a pound.)
-4 red bell peppers
-Spaghetti sauce, I used the sauce with cheese (to your satisfaction)
-1 1/2 tsps dried basil
-Fresh oregano, chopped (to your satisfaction)
-1 garlic clove, minced
-1/2 tsp salt and pepper
-1 cup fresh spinach, rinse and drained
-Green onions, chopped (to your satisfaction)
-2 Tbsps grated Parmesan
-Mozzarella cheese or cheese of your choice
-Rice, cooked (I can't remember how much I used.)
-Non stick cooking spray

Line baking pan with with foil and coat with non-stick spray.  Cook meat in pan over med heat.  Drain meat and return to pan.

 Add sauce and seasonings to pan and simmer for about 10 to 20 minutes.  In a sauce pan, saute the garlic and green onions in a little extra olive oil.  Add the spinach, oregano, green onions, garlic, rice and Parmesan cheese to the meat mixture; stir until everything is well combined; and remove from heat.

Scoop 1/2 cup of the meat mixture into each pepper.

 

Sprinkle cheese on top and bake for 20-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and lightly brown.

Remove and let cool.  You may want to use more that 4 red bell peppers because there is plenty of meat mixture to go around unless you use some very large peppers.  I served these with some salad.

Enjoy!


Jill's Comfort Zone

Chive Mashed Potatoes

I use to find making mash potatoes nerve wrecking.  My hands have been fighting with Arthritis for about 6 to 7 years now.  So mashing potatoes wasn't pleasant.  They turned out delicious though!!!  I can't remember where I found this recipe from because I made this dish about 3 and 1/2 years ago.  I have made it a few times after and just did my own thing.  The potatoes just melts in your mouth!  So creamy and yummy!  I know...sorry it has been taking me so long to post recipes lately.  There are so many recipes I have to share with you.

Here is the ingredients and I'm sorry that I don't have the measures but I'm sure you can find one similar to this one online some where.  

-Red potatoes, peeled and cubed (I have also kept the peeling on at times.  Just make sure you rinse them off real good.)

-1 container sour cream

-butter + a few slices to add on top

-Salt and pepper, to taste

-chopped fresh chives

-pinch paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place potatoes in a large pot of water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender.  Drain.  

Combine potatoes, sour cream, butter, pepper and salt together and mash or blend until creamy.  As you can see, I used my hand blender.  Add in chives and paprika and stir until well blended.  

Spoon potato mixture into a casserole dish.  Add slices of butter on top along with some paprika and chives.  Bake in the oven until bubbling and serve.

I have seen some recipes that uses cream cheese as well.  I haven't tried it yet but will soon.  I will keep you posted.

Enjoy!


Jill's Comfort Zone

Healthier Living

Hello faithful readers!  I was suppose to post this for Mother's Day but I got tied up.  So let me start off by wishing all of the beautiful women a Happy belated Mother's Day!  Mother's Day is everyday and we should pamper ourselves every chance we get.  I would also like to wish all the great dad's a Happy Belated Father's Day as well!  I've been going down my Goals list or bucket list and checking things off.  At the top of my list was for me to go back to school which I have done.  The second was to quit smoking cigarettes which I am still working on.  It is a hard battle but I am not giving up.  Next on my list was a healthier living which I am working on at this time.  I began my health kick on April 27th with the Fat Flush 10 Day Diet.  I won't call this a diet because I'm not counting calories or nothing.  I'm just eating better and smaller portions.  I'm still enjoying the foods I love and added on some healthier dishes as well.  Before I started, I weighed in and I was 240 pounds.  By May 6th I lost 11 pounds.  That was the easy part...the hard part is keeping the pounds off and to keep losing weight.  now I've gain 4 of those pounds back. I am working out twice a day and eating healthier.  I'm still drinking the Fat Flush Water (FF) to date but I feel my pants getting looser by the day.  My goal is to get down to 180 pounds!  I was told to stay away from the scale and that's what I'm going to do.

I can truly tell you guys that I feel so much better then I did before I started down my new way of living life style.    Thursday, June 27th marked two months that I've transitioned into this life change and I'm down 22lbs.  I have a long way to go but I feel good.  This isn't an easy transition but I'm up for the challenge!  As long as you surround yourself around good positive people, you can get through anything that comes your way!  I love my support team...always lifting me up!!!  Thank you so much guys!!!!  I could not do this without you!

So on April 26th I started the Fat Flush Water (FFW) that was on Dr. Oz with Kim Lyons.  I saw some friends on Facebook talking about how much the FFW works and decided to try it out.  Let me tell you, this truly helped me get a jump start on my weight lost!  All you need is some filtered water, sliced cucumbers, tangerines, grape fruits and fresh mint leaves.  It takes a few days to get use to the taste but you can adjust it as you go along.  The longer it sits the better.  Tangerine season is over so I'm substituting them with clementines and oranges during the Summer.

I have also been trying my hand at infused water to cut out sugar.

As well as protein drinks!  Didn't know how good raw greens could taste.  My girls aren't a big fan.

Shopping has been fun but not kind to my pockets!  It's truly sad that it cost so much to eat healthy these days. It really don't make no sense how much fruits and vegetables cost today.  I am truly struggling trying to keep up!  LOL!  Not funny but you have to laugh sometimes.  I just wanted to share with you a glimpse of what my meals has been like for these two months.  Chips is my weakness...something about that crunch and salt goodness (unhealthiness is more like it) is oh soooooooooooo good!  LOL!  Well I have switched them out with tortilla chips and hummus!  Don't get me wrong...every now and then I still have me a bag or two of potato chips.  I just learned to cut back and know when to put them down.

Thank you for supporting my health kick journey and for reading my blog!  I truly appreciate you guys and I hope you will keep supporting me.  Have a great weekend and stay tuned to more blogs from my home to yours!  :)

Jill's Comfort Zone