Stuffed Peppers

Some of you are wondering why is she still writing about cooking for a single gal when I'm in a relationship. Well here it is, we don't live together and honestly I'm still trying to learn his favorite foods.

This one was a complete surprise to me since my amazing boy friend is Russian.

I was looking for something quick one day on a shopping trip to satisfy the growling stomach. Somehow I threw in ready to cook stuffed peppers, but not the ones you microwave.

I found myself falling in love with the savory taste that these provided and was determined to make them myself. I know plenty of people out there have posted recipes for stuffed peppers, but this was my first attempt and despite the angle of cutting the pepper, the BF & family devoured these suckers!

 Recipe

Pre-time: 30 mins

Servings: 3-6

Ingredients

2 lbs of ground beef

2 cups of brown rice

1/4 green pepper, chopped

1/4 white onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of pepper

16 oz of original tomato sauce

1/2 of cheese (I choose mozzarella)

3 large peppers (Orange, Red and Yellow are the best)

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Cook rice until done. Core out peppers (removing all the seeds) and cut in half (or keep whole). 

Place in simmering water for 2 minutes, flipping once until pepper is slightly soft. Move peppers aside into a baking tray.

Brown the ground beef in skillet, add chopped green pepper, onion and garlic to skillet. Let onion and pepper soften. Add rice and tomato sauce and let simmer until liquid is almost gone.

Scoop beef and rice mixture into peppers and top with a sprinkle of cheese.

Place in oven for 20 minutes, let cool and enjoy!

I didn't serve this with anything, it was a dish in itself, but you can serve it with mashed potatoes or even a helping of extra rice. 

Let me know how this turned out for you in the comments below!

P&P Dog Biscuits (Wheat Free)

This inspiration came from the left over pumpkin I had when making pumpkin bread. My fur baby is highly allergic to wheat or anything containing wheat so I'm always on the hunt for something to satisfy those big brown eyes with a delightful wheat free treat.

I was sent this recipe by a co-worker and now one of my step-doggy's mom (Hi Cody I miss you)!

These treats are very simple and easy to make with any left over pumpkin you may have from your fall festive baking. 

Charlie's first taste!

Recipe

Pre-time: 15 mins

Servings: depends on your fur baby

Ingredients

2 TBSP Peanut Butter ( I choose Skippy)

1 Eggs

2 Cups Canned Pumpkin

3 Cups Oats

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix ingredients together in a mixing bowl. I find getting my hands in the mixture really helps to mix it all well.

Once you have a gooey dough, take out spoon fulls and roll into 1/2 inch balls, placing them onto a cookie sheet evenly spaced apart and flatten. I have also smoothed out the whole dough and use cookie cutters for this as well. 

Place in oven for 15 mins (making sure to turn once), let cool and Fido, Spot or Charlie (my baby) will enjoy!

To keep these fresh place in the fridge, they will last three times longer.

Pumpkin Bread

Fall has arrived, winter is vastly approaching and I'm bundling up in numerous layers ready to snuggle next to a fire place. The only problem, I don't have a fire place! So I bake a lot throughout the fall and winter months. It give a great heat source to the house and yummy treats to share!

One of the big hits in my house is Pumpkin Bread. Now I have to give credit where it is due, this is not my recipe. When I lived in Florida for my internship after college the family I stayed with, someone who I saw as a second mother growing up, shared this amazing recipe with me.

We both have our ways of making it, replacing this and that for our reasons, but in the end the bread is amazing and truly I swear some days its just as good as a cake.

Recipe

Pre-time: 60 mins
Servings: 8-16

Ingredients

 2 Cups Sugar

3 Eggs

1 Cup Cooking Oil

2 Cups Canned Pumpkin

3 Cups Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Ground Nutmeg

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Ground Cloves

1 cup Raisins (Optional)

1 cup Chopped Walnuts (Optional)

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour pans, this makes approximately 2 loafs.

Place dry ingredients in bowl, mix in eggs, oil and pumpkin on a low speed.

Pour into pans, place in over for approximately 45-50 minutes. 

Simple, easy to make Pumpkin bread that will have everyone going nuts.

Enjoy!!!

Back in the Kitchen with Chicken Taco Wontons

It's been a while. I've done some cooking, just haven't really felt the need to put it up here because box cooking isn't something you need to read about. Just read the instructions and you have exactly what I made.

But, I'm back with a great new recipe and a vow to add one new recipe a week.

This week I made Chicken Taco Wontons. I know you're probably thinking "Applebee's already did this." But, mine aren't like Applebee's. Heck I didn't even get the idea from them.

I have been looking for wonton wrappers for a while now, with no idea what I was going to do with them. As they sat in my fridge for a week, I debated about doing Asian food. However, I'm drawn to cooking Asian food naturally for some reason and I wanted to jump outside my box a little.

So I took some chicken, boiled it with taco seasoning and waited for more inspiration. As the chicken boiled in the seasoning I grabbed two peppers and an onion from my garden stash (I spent the summer growing veggies!!!).

Once the chicken was cooked and the sauce was pretty much gone I felt as though something was missing. So I took some BBQ sauce and threw it in for experimentation.

Turns out after 25 mins of wrestling with the wonton wrappers that I made a pretty good appetizer type of meal. After all who doesn't love a finger food?

Recipe

Prep-time: 45 mins

Servings: 4-8  

Ingredients

4 boneless Chicken Thighs
4 Tbs of Taco seasoning
1-2 Cups of water
2 Tbs Hickory BBQ sauce
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
Small green pepper
Small red pepper
1/4 of onion
1 package of Wonton wrappers
1 cup of Chedder Cheese

Instructions


Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. 

Place thawed out chicken thighs into sauce pan along with water and taco seasoning. Let chicken cook until ready to shred. 

Chop peppers and onion while chicken is cooking.

Once chicken is cooked, remove from sauce pan and begin to shred. Let the leftover water and seasoning simmer. Once the all chicken is shredded toss back into pan along with chopped peppers and onion. Let simmer for a few minutes until the veggies become tender. Add in BBQ sauce, salt and pepper, mixing well. 

Lay out wonton wrappers on a cookie sheet. Place a small amount of chicken in the center of the wonton, top with cheddar cheese. Follow instructions on how to close the wontons with water.

Once all wontons are closed spray with butter and pop into the oven for 5 minutes. Turn over spray with butter again and pop back into over for another 5 minutes.

Serve with sour cream and salsa (I didn't have any) to enjoy!