Sausage Stuffed Peppers

January 19, 2012 3 Comments

During my kid years, stuffed peppers were in the regular dinner rotation at my dad’s house. I hated them. My step mom would fill crisp green peppers with a beef mixture in the morning, pop them into the slow cooker with some tomato sauce, and when we got home in the evening we’d find the crunchy green peppers had been transformed into a slimy mushy mess. Back then, I had deep-rooted hatred for lots of cooked veggies—carrots, celery, and tomatoes to name a few—but cooked green peppers took the medal for most loathed cooked vegetable. To my young taste buds, cooked green peppers had this toxic unnatural taste to them—like they’d been marinating in a puddle of Windex for a few hours. It just wasn’t right. Luckily, peppers were pricy so my step mom was more than happy to make me a meatball sans pepper for dinner while the rest of the family subjected themselves to green pepper poisoning. I love a good meatball.

To this day, I’m still not a huge fan of stuffed green peppers. As I aged and grew wiser, I discovered that other types of peppers could be stuffed just as easily and infinitely more deliciously than green peppers ever could.

Case in point:

Some of my favorite peppers to stuff are banana peppers, cubanelles, and Anaheims. I usually buy whichever variety is the biggest (i.e., most stuffable) at the grocery store that day.

Recipes, Slow Cookin

Slow Cooker Sunday: Sausage & Peppers & Apple Crisp!

November 13, 2011 9 Comments

Geeze. Can’t believe it is Sunday. Strike that. I can’t believe Sunday is practically over.

Waaaaaaaa!!!!!

I feel like life is moving along at crazy fast speeds and I’m just flailing my arms about trying to stay afloat. The good news is I’m taking over a week off of work for Turkey Day. So hopefully that helps to revive me!

This lovely Sunday I woke up and got straight to work destroying my kitchen.

When will I learn to clean as I go?

Never.

This week I pulled BOTH of the slow cookers out of the pantry for some slow cooked sausage and peppers and slow cooked apple crisp deliciousness!

We make sausage and peppers pretty regularly and don’t really get crazy with them. We simply throw some grilled sausages in the crockpot with a jar of tomato sauce, green peppers, onions, and some seasonings. You know, garlic garlic garlic and maybe some oregano.

Then we just let everything simmer together until we’re ready to feast. Soup was BOGO at Harris Teeter this week (HOLLA!), so I nabbed some Chipotle Chicken soup I’ve been wanting to try.

Altogether:

Since I had to pop into work for a few hours today, Jarrod was in charge of throwing everything together. Holy cow these sausage sandwiches were DELICIOUS. Absolutely delicious. I asked Jarrod what seasonings he used for the sauce… his response? “Ummm… nothing?”

Men.

Thank you Ragu, thank you. Smile

The soup was great as well—way to hook a sister up, Harris Teeter.

The Slow Cooker Apple Crisp was a wee bit more involved, but totally worth it. I used this Allrecipes.com recipe as my guide, with a few tweaks. I used three granny smith apples and three red apples.. I always get confused on the red apples. What are these? Galas?

First up, mix the following together in a large ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid:

1/3 cup white sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 apples peeled and sliced (I used 3 granny smith, 3 gala)
2 tbsp lemon juice

And give it all a good shimmy shake.

Spray the crock with cooking spray, then toss in the apple mixture.

THEN, in a medium bowl, combine the following:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces

Use a fork or your hands to combine everything until the butter is dispersed throughout. I recommend using your hands, of course. Then sprinkle over top of apples.

Ta-da!

Cook on low for four hours, remove lid half way then cook 1 hour more. And you’ll get….

A big fat gloppy mess.

This is NOT ok.

Luckily, my crockpot is oven safe (up to 400 degrees). So, I popped the crock into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Hooray for crispy topping!

The apples of the bottom of the crock disintegrated down into a delicious chunky applesauce. A spoonful of the steaming sauce, some chunks of apple and crispy topping from the top of the crock, and a dollop of slow-churned vanilla ice cream….

O…. M…G….

DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The swaps I made to the original recipe nearly cut the calories in half. Next time I’m going to reduce the sugar more to further healthify the dessert. I’m willing to do several trial runs if necessary 😉

Slow Cooker Apple Crisp

1/3 cup white sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 apples peeled and sliced (I used 3 granny smith, 3 gala)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
Vanilla ice cream

Step one: mix the first five ingredients (through lemon juice) together in a large ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid. Shake the bag/bowl to coat the apples. Spray the crock with cooking spray, then toss in the apple mixture.

Step two: in a medium bowl, combine the next seven ingredients (flour through butter). Use a fork or your hands to crumble the butter into the flour mixture. Then sprinkle over top of apples.

Step three: Cook on low for four hours, remove lid half way then cook 1 hour more.

Step four: Verify your crock is oven-safe, then place uncovered crock into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes to crisp the topping. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Recipes, Slow Cookin

Slow Cooker Sunday: Sausage & Peppers & Apple Crisp!

November 13, 2011 8 Comments

Geeze. Can’t believe it is Sunday. Strike that. I can’t believe Sunday is practically over.

Waaaaaaaa!!!!!

I feel like life is moving along at crazy fast speeds and I’m just flailing my arms about trying to stay afloat. The good news is I’m taking over a week off of work for Turkey Day. So hopefully that helps to revive me!

This lovely Sunday I woke up and got straight to work destroying my kitchen.

When will I learn to clean as I go?

Never.

This week I pulled BOTH of the slow cookers out of the pantry for some slow cooked sausage and peppers and slow cooked apple crisp deliciousness!

We make sausage and peppers pretty regularly and don’t really get crazy with them. We simply throw some grilled sausages in the crockpot with a jar of tomato sauce, green peppers, onions, and some seasonings. You know, garlic garlic garlic and maybe some oregano.

Then we just let everything simmer together until we’re ready to feast. Soup was BOGO at Harris Teeter this week (HOLLA!), so I nabbed some Chipotle Chicken soup I’ve been wanting to try.

Altogether:

Since I had to pop into work for a few hours today, Jarrod was in charge of throwing everything together. Holy cow these sausage sandwiches were DELICIOUS. Absolutely delicious. I asked Jarrod what seasonings he used for the sauce… his response? “Ummm… nothing?”

Men.

Thank you Ragu, thank you. Smile

The soup was great as well—way to hook a sister up, Harris Teeter.

The Slow Cooker Apple Crisp was a wee bit more involved, but totally worth it. I used this Allrecipes.com recipe as my guide, with a few tweaks. I used three granny smith apples and three red apples.. I always get confused on the red apples. What are these? Galas?

First up, mix the following together in a large ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid:

1/3 cup white sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 apples peeled and sliced (I used 3 granny smith, 3 gala)
2 tbsp lemon juice

And give it all a good shimmy shake.

Spray the crock with cooking spray, then toss in the apple mixture.

THEN, in a medium bowl, combine the following:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces

Use a fork or your hands to combine everything until the butter is dispersed throughout. I recommend using your hands, of course. Then sprinkle over top of apples.

Ta-da!

Cook on low for four hours, remove lid half way then cook 1 hour more. And you’ll get….

A big fat gloppy mess.

This is NOT ok.

Luckily, my crockpot is oven safe (up to 400 degrees). So, I popped the crock into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Hooray for crispy topping!

The apples of the bottom of the crock disintegrated down into a delicious chunky applesauce. A spoonful of the steaming sauce, some chunks of apple and crispy topping from the top of the crock, and a dollop of slow-churned vanilla ice cream….

O…. M…G….

DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The swaps I made to the original recipe nearly cut the calories in half. Next time I’m going to reduce the sugar more to further healthify the dessert. I’m willing to do several trial runs if necessary 😉

Slow Cooker Apple Crisp

1/3 cup white sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 apples peeled and sliced (I used 3 granny smith, 3 gala)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
Vanilla ice cream

Step one: mix the first five ingredients (through lemon juice) together in a large ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid. Shake the bag/bowl to coat the apples. Spray the crock with cooking spray, then toss in the apple mixture.

Step two: in a medium bowl, combine the next seven ingredients (flour through butter). Use a fork or your hands to crumble the butter into the flour mixture. Then sprinkle over top of apples.

Step three: Cook on low for four hours, remove lid half way then cook 1 hour more.

Step four: Verify your crock is oven-safe, then place uncovered crock into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes to crisp the topping. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

My Favs, Ramblings, Recipes

Recipe: Jambalaya {bad things happen when I don’t eat}

July 19, 2011 11 Comments

Somehow in the past few months I seemed to have forgotten my passion for cooking. Let’s take a moment to ponder how the heck this is even possible. Somewhere between leaving a job of over four years, attempting to sell a house, subsequently becoming a landlord, selling off and donating an insane amount of my possessions, a crazy condo hunt, leaving my family and home state of 26 years, a HORRIBLE moving experience, starting a new job, and immersing myself in the culinary delights of a new city I forgot how much fun and just how darn rewarding a home cooked meal can be.

Blasphemy!

Through these past few whirlwind months I’ve been a little *ahem* emotional. Ok, not just emotional. Let’s also throw in irrational, brash, and downright scary at times. This Saturday I actually cried over burnt pizza. I CRIED, PEOPLE. And then I sat on the living room floor with my knees clenched up to my chest and just stared off into nothingness as my body seethed in furry searching for some sort of carbohydrate to peak my bottomed out blood sugar.

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: bad things happen when I don’t eat.

While I was in the midst of nuclear shutdown, the BF came over, sat down beside me, and put his arm around his little sugar feigning zombie. And we sat. And then he did what any good man would do: he didn’t talk, didn’t ask questions, he just got up from the floor sauntered over to the kitchen and made me a snack.

I know, right?

Why can’t I see things so simply? Is it really just a man thing? Are women really just crazy complex, overanalyzing, (often) emotional basket cases? Whatever the case may be (lord knows I don’t have the answers) the BF does a pretty darn good job of reeling me back from Mary’s Land of Anxious Gloom by trying to insert some of the simple things into my life. Sunday morning he convinced me to simply sit on the porch and drink mimosas, and Sunday night we simply made jambalaya for dinner.

This was simply stick to your ribs delicious, guys. I’m serious. It gave the jambalaya we had in New Orleans a run for the money!

Jambalaya

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light’s Jambalaya.

2 links hot chicken or turkey sausage (cooked and sliced)
1 cup white onion (chopped)
1/2 cup celery (chopped)
1/2 cup green pepper (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1.5 cups uncooked long grain brown rice
3 cups fat-free low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp paprika (smoked, if you have it)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepepr
16oz cooked chicken breast (cubed)
14.5oz can diced tomatoes with green peppers and onions (undrained)
4oz shrimp (uncooked)
1/2 cup green onions (thinly sliced)

Note: I recommend Uncle Ben’s Fast & Natural Whole Grain Brown Rice and Harris Teeter hot chicken sausage or Jennie-O Turkey Sausage.

Step 1: Coat a large pot with cooking spray then heat over medium-high heat. Add sausage, onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook 12 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

Step 2: Stir in uncooked rice and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add broth and all the spices and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.

Step 3: Add chicken and tomatoes, half of the green onions, and shrimp. Stir, then cover and cook 8 minutes or until shrimp are done.

Step 4: Remove from heat, sprinkle with remaining green onions, and eat your face off.

Stats on 1 serving: 344 calories, 45g carbs, 6g fat, 33g protein, 4g fiber

Looking for a Jambalaya-for-one recipe? Check out this post.

Looking for a crazy, borderline incoherent, slightly volatile woman? Catch me on a day when I miss my midmorning snack.

My Favs, Ramblings, Recipes

Jambalaya & Bad things happen when I don’t eat.

July 19, 2011 8 Comments

Somehow in the past few months I seemed to have forgotten my passion for cooking. Let’s take a moment to ponder how the heck this is even possible. Somewhere between leaving a job of over four years, attempting to sell a house, subsequently becoming a landlord, selling off and donating an insane amount of my possessions, a crazy condo hunt, leaving my family and home state of 26 years, a HORRIBLE moving experience, starting a new job, and immersing myself in the culinary delights of a new city I forgot how much fun and just how darn rewarding a home cooked meal can be.

Blasphemy!

Through these past few whirlwind months I’ve been a little *ahem* emotional. Ok, not just emotional. Let’s also throw in irrational, brash, and downright scary at times. This Saturday I actually cried over burnt pizza. I CRIED, PEOPLE. And then I sat on the living room floor with my knees clenched up to my chest and just stared off into nothingness as my body seethed in furry searching for some sort of carbohydrate to peak my bottomed out blood sugar.

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: bad things happen when I don’t eat.

While I was in the midst of nuclear shutdown, the BF came over, sat down beside me, and put his arm around his little sugar feigning zombie. And we sat. And then he did what any good man would do: he didn’t talk, didn’t ask questions, he just got up from the floor sauntered over to the kitchen and made me a snack.

I know, right?

Why can’t I see things so simply? Is it really just a man thing? Are women really just crazy complex, overanalyzing, (often) emotional basket cases? Whatever the case may be (lord knows I don’t have the answers) the BF does a pretty darn good job of reeling me back from Mary’s Land of Anxious Gloom by trying to insert some of the simple things into my life. Sunday morning he convinced me to simply sit on the porch and drink mimosas, and Sunday night we simply made jambalaya for dinner.

This was simply stick to your ribs delicious, guys. I’m serious. It gave the jambalaya we had in New Orleans a run for the money!

We used an old Cooking Light recipe (with a few minor modifications—if you’re interested, check out the original here).

Jambalaya Ingredients List (serves 5)

2 cooked hot chicken sausage links, sliced
1 cup chopped white onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain brown rice (such as Uncle Ben’s Fast & Natural Whole Grain Brown Rice)
2 3/4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground thyme
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
8 ounces cooked boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes with green peppers and onions, undrained
4 ounces raw shrimp, peeled, deveined
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

Simplified instructions:

Coat a large pot with cooking spray then heat over medium-high heat. Add sausage, onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook 12 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.
Stir in uncooked rice and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Add broth and all the spices and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.
Add chicken and tomatoes, stir in shrimp, cover and cook 8 minutes or until shrimp are done.
Remove from heat, sprinkle with green onions, and eat your face off.

Stats on 1 serving: 351 calories, 54g carbs, 4g fat, 25g protein, 5g fiber

Looking for a Jambalaya-for-one recipe? Check out this post.

Looking for a crazy, borderline incoherent, slightly volatile woman? Catch me on a day when I miss my midmorning snack.