Stuffed Peppers

I needed to clean out my fridge today, so I decided to create my own version of stuffed peppers with what I had on hand. I think it worked out great! Here's what I used:

2 Green Peppers
1lb Ground Beef
1 Small Zucchini
1 Small Yellow Squash
1 Portabella Mushroom
A Chunk of Tofu
About 1 Serving of White Rice
1/4 Jar of Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce
Olive Oil

Brown and drain the ground beef, add chopped/diced zucchini, squash, and mushroom (I chopped them pretty small), and stir in pasta sauce. Cover and let the veggies cook for a few minutes before adding tofu (again, cut small), and rice.

Cut off tops of peppers and clean out seeds. Stuff with filling and place in a glass pan drizzled with olive oil. Bake at 350•F until green peppers have softened.

I ended up with enough filling to stuff 2-3 more peppers, but I think it's yummy by itself too.

Tomato and Olive Penne

Original Recipe:

Salt and Pepper
1 lb Penne or other short pasta
1/4 Cup olive oil
2 Garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2/3 lb cherry tomatoes (2 cups), halved or quartered
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
1/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
1/4 Cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 Cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

1) In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the penne according to package instructions until al dente, about 13 minutes. Drain

2) Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, and cook, stirring, until just golden, about 1 minute. Add the cherry tomatoes, oregano, crushed red pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Reduce the heat to low, and cook, stirring, until tomato juices run, about 3 minutes.

3) Add the penne, olives, parsley, and 1/4 cup Parmesan to the skillet and toss to combine. Serve with more cheese if desired.

For kids:
If you're cooking for children who don't like black olives, toss the olives in for the adults after you've served the kids.

Serves 4


Melissa's Version:

Use any kind of tomatoes (smaller ones are tastier, but anything works), slice larger ones into wedges, or half-wedges.
No red pepper, olives, or parsley.

Follow directions as noted; I typically add more salt then the recipe calls for - just to taste.

Smoreos!

So, no - I didn't come up with this idea myself (you can thank Gilmore Girls for this), but a friend of mine came up with the name for them when I tried them out while we were camping over Thanksgiving.

You will need:

Marshmallows (the big kind)
A way to roast/toast the marshmallows (i.e. fire and roasting sticks)
Oreos

Think Smores. Twist open an oreo, toast your mallow, and smoosh between the oreo cookie. They are amazing. =)

The Easiest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies - Ever!

1 Spice Cake Mix
1 Regular (small) can of pumpkin
1 Bag Chocolate Chips (I prefer milk chocolate)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix spice cake mix with can of pumpkin (don't add anything else!), add chocolate chips as desired.
Spoon on to an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out fairly clean.
Cool, eat!