Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers w/Asparagus

These stuffed peppers were delicious and so easy to make. Rey and I will definitely be taking these to work tomorrow. This recipe is original - I was inspired by watching my grandmother make stuffed peppers when I was a child and by the beautiful colors of the peppers.


To start, rinse 2 cups of rice until the water is clear, and put it in the rice cooker to cook away while you finish the rest of the prep work. Also, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Next, chop a medium onion and 2-3 large carrots. Heat your largest skillet, pour  in about 3 tbs olive oil, and then saute your onion and carrots with salt and pepper. Keep an eye on it, stirring occasionally, and start prepping your peppers. Cut the tops off and clean them out. Pull the stems out of the tops or cut them. My peppers were nice and ripe so they pulled right out. 


Now it's about time to pour a can of diced tomatoes in with the onions and carrots. Fill the tomato can with water to rinse out and pour into the skillet. Then add a can of garbanzo beans that you have rinsed as well as veggie crumbles, two tbs garlic powder, and 1.5 tbs cumin. Stir everything through and cook until all of the liquid is absorbed. At this point, you can add any ground meat instead of veggie crumbles for a more traditional stuffed pepper.

Once the rice is cooked, add it to your vegetable mixture, and stir until your rice is coated. Now it's time to to stuff your peppers. Once you have them stuffed, put their tops back on. Pour a good amount of olive oil in the bottom of your pan, place your peppers in the pan, then salt and pepper to taste. I also drizzled a little olive oil over the top. 

Bake in the oven for about 30-45 minutes. Enjoy!!!

Couscous Salad with Feta and Mint

I tried  this recipe from RedBook. I modified it just a little and it was perfect. It almost helped my roommate Rey and I forget the cold weather outside. Almost. It has a very clean, palate pleasing taste. We ate our salad accompanied with asparagus that I cooked in boiling water for about 5-7 minutes. So good...here's the recipe as I made it.


Put about 2.5 cups water on to boil and add some salt. While the water is doing its job, you cut in a half about a pint of cherry tomatoes and chop four small salad cucumbers into small pieces. Rough chop a nice handful of mint leaves. Then zest one lemon (I use my potato peeler - it's just easier) before cutting it in half and and squeezing the juice over the veggies and mint you just chopped.


Your water should have come to a boil by now. In a large bowl, combine a tsp of coriander, a tsp of cumin, three large garlic cloves minced, and four tsp of Sriracha hot chili sauce  (Meijer and Wal-Mart both have this in the Asian food section). Add 2 cups of uncooked whole wheat couscous and stir before adding the boiling water, and stir again. ( I use a whisk for this. It just works best with couscous.) Cover the bowl with saran wrap and let it cool for about 15 to 20 minutes. The couscous will absorb the spices and water as it cooks.


After it cools down (there should be no steam), add the veggie mixture, three tbs of really good olive oil, one can of garbanzo beans that you have rinsed and about one cup of feta cheese. Combine and serve. We added Greek Kalamata olives on the side, but they are optional.

This will serve about 6 people or if you're Rey and me, it makes enough for dinner and you'll have leftovers for lunch the next day. This will definitely be a summer staple for us.