TURKEY STUFFED PEPPERS
I absolutely love Pinterest. Especially for finding tasty looking pictures of recipes that I might like to try & it was there that I first stumbled across a delicious image of these Turkey Stuffed Peppers, which then led me to SkinnyTaste.com for the recipe.
Roy really enjoyed this recipe. Normally all I get out of him is “tasty” when I ask how stuff is that I’ve made for him but this particular recipe he raved about.
I made some minor modifications, mostly due to the fact that I didn’t have any tin foil or garlic powder on hand, so I’ll post the way I made it, which still turned out awesome, & you can decide for yourself which method you’d like to try.
Ingredients You’ll Need:
* 1 lb lean ground turkey meat
* 2 tbsp garlic, minced
* 1/4 onion, minced
* 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
* 1 tsp onion salt
* 1 tsp cumin powder
* Salt & pepper to taste
* 3 large red bell peppers
* 1 cup chicken broth
* 1/4 cup tomato sauce
* 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
* 1 tbsp Olive oil
* 1/4 cup shredded cheese
What To Do:
* Heat oven to 400°.
* Cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise, and remove all seeds. Place in a baking dish.
* Bake 20 minutes & while waiting do the rest….
* Heat olive oil in a medium pan.
* Add onion, garlic and cilantro to the pan. Saute about 2 minutes and add ground turkey.
* Season with salt, onion salt, pepper, and cumin.
* Brown meat for several minutes until completely cooked.
* Add tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of chicken broth, mix well and simmer on low for about 5 minutes.
* Combine cooked rice and meat together.
* Spoon meat mixture into each pepper half and fill it with as much as you can.
* Top with shredded cheddar cheese.
* Pour the remainder of the chicken broth on the bottom of the pan & bake for about 25 minutes.
* Enjoy!
This picture was taken last year just before Valentines Day ended when Roy got off his final plane, on the last leg of his journey, coming home from Iraq.
I don’t think there’s anything that can beat my hubby coming home, safe & sound after 8 months in Iraq, & on Valentines Day no less!
This year we actually decided to do our celebration a day early to avoid the chaos that seems to ensue on Valentines Day with trying to get a reservation anywhere. I booked us a morning at the spa together where we had a lovely couples massage, followed by a relaxing soak in a private jacuzzi, & then a pedicure where I got my toenails painted all pretty & Roy got his dry skin, caused by many hours spent in combat boots, taken care of. Then, to finish it off, we had a delicious steak lunch before picking the kids up from school & having a rejuvenating nap.
It was an absolutely wonderful day of pampering.
KID FRIENDLY SWEET & SALTY TREATS
I was first introduced to this idea by a friend of mine who blogged about it here. Her idea in doing it was an excellent way of combining yummy fun with learning for her boys. I later began finding similar images of this treat all over Pinterest so decided to collect the necessary ingredients & let the girls give it a go.
They loved it! No, we didn’t make much of a learning experience out of it, but they did learn about sharing a little bit since they each had to assemble their pieces on a separate end of the same cookie sheet. One would think this would be a simple enough concept but when it comes to our girls they find a way to bicker about the smallest of things. I’m sure it has a lot to do with them both being so close in age developmentally but sometimes it’s just mind boggling.
Anyways, after sorting out what it meant to keep their pieces on their own side & eventually meet in the middle they did wonderful. They were so excited to get to assemble everything on their own & even more excited about getting to eat their treats after. We even packaged a bunch up for them to share with their classes at school which resulted in rave reviews. So I think these have quickly become a definite favorite. It’s something the kids can do themselves that’s simple, constructive, rewarding & of course yummy!
Ingredients You’ll Need:
* Bag of square waffle style pretzels
* Bag of Hershy’s Kisses & or Hugs
* Bag of M&M’s (we used the mini ones this time around but I think from now on we’ll stick to the regular sized ones since the mini ones were a bit of a pain to stick on top without getting melted chocolate all over little fingers at the same time)
What To Do:
* Pre heat oven to 275
* Show your kiddo what to do (On a cookie sheet place Pretzel on the bottom, Kiss/Hug on top, repeat) & let them have at it
* Pop sheet in the oven for 2-3 minutes
* Depending on the age of your child & their understanding of NOT touching hot things have either them or yourself lightly push an M&M onto the center of each treat
* Refrigerate sheet for about 15 minutes so chocolate can re harden. Personally I then package them all into a container & leave it in the fridge so the chocolate doesn’t get soft but this is entirely up to you.
