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12 March 2010

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

I decided it wasn't so easy keeping up with Little Miss ButtonsMcSweet and her daily blogging, so I took a week (and a few days) off. I wish I could say that I've just been relaxing, but I don't think that I have. As usual, we are keeping pretty busy - or at least that's my excuse as to why the bed only gets made about once a week.

Anyway, a couple weekends ago, we had our friends Ken & Katie come down for dinner and game night where we challenged each other to multiple rounds of Buzz Quiz World (Rated T for Teen!). Seriously, it was fun. And believe it or not, with their ABSOLUTE LOVE of the 80's, the two times that it was an option for them to pick it as a category, they didn't. WTW?!* That night, I made stuffed green peppers for everyone and mentioned it ahead of time to make sure they were okay with that. Imagine my shock when I look over at Katie's plate at the end of the meal to see the pepper sitting there all hollowed out and empty on the inside (kind of like my husband's heart - I kid. I kid.) Turns out Katie loves the insides, but can't stand peppers.

Part of my reasoning for making the peppers was to offer the recipe up here because it's another one of those that I can generally make while Olivia is napping and then bake when we are ready for dinner. And, yeah, guess who forgot to take pictures? MOI. So, we had to have them again this week. I'm not complaining. I could eat that and Marie Callender's Santa Fe Chicken frozen dinner on a daily basis and be happy. No, wait, I'd also need the Krusteaz Toffee Bars too. Then, yeah, no complaining.

Without further ado, STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS

Ingredients:
6 bell peppers
2 cups cooked rice
1 medium can & 1 small can of Hunt's tomato sauce
1/2 onion, chopped
1+ pound of ground beef
garlic salt
Mozzarella cheese!

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds. Cook peppers in boiling water for 5 minutes, drain and set aside. (Do not overcook the peppers!)

2. In a large skillet, saute ground beef and chopped onion and season with garlic salt until beef is fully cooked. Drain excess fat in a strainer and chop beef up into small bits.
3. In a small saucepan, fix rice according to package to make 2 cups of rice.
4. Combine rice with ground beef mixture and add medium can of tomato sauce. Stir thoroughly.
5. Place peppers in baking dish(es) and sprinkle mozzarella cheese in the bottom of the peppers. Fill with beef mixture and cover each with the small can of tomato sauce.


6. Bake at 350, covered for about 35 minutes. Cover peppers with mozzarella cheese and bake an additional ten minutes, uncovered.

Seriously, SO scrumptious.  And, as you can see here, there are SEVEN peppers.  I realized I had a little extra stuffing, so I pulled out an orange pepper that we had and used it without boiling it.  David reheated it for dinner last night and it was super tasty.  Sometimes the green peppers have a little bitterness to them and the orange was really sweet.

I love the fact that I can make these during naptime and then throw them in the oven when we are ready for dinner and all I have to do is make a salad and mealtime is done!  I also love the fact that it makes enough for us to eat devour for lunch (and dinner) the next day.  The only problem with it is that it makes a HUGE mess.


Hopefully you are lucky enough to have a fabulous little helper like I do.  Boy, she really makes clean up easy!



So, yeah, remember earlier when I said that thing about Krusteaz Toffee bars?  Well, let me just pleasure your eyes with this one.  

Question: Do you know what adding two eggs to the following ingredients will get you?


Besides a big butt and thighs that jiggle?  Pretty much the best dessert ever to cross your pretty little lips. And, yeah, that's baby food you see there.  You can thank Lauren and her Laughing Life for that one.

So, the toffee bar recipe is on the back of the Krusteaz chocolate chunk box (and the reason that there are 2 boxes is because I doubled the recipe when I took them to my Mommy & Me group yesterday).  Instead of using the 1/2 cup of butter the recipe calls for, we substituted 1 container (1/2 cup) of baby food prune puree.  When you combine the mix, the prunes, the egg and the toffee, you get this:


And, after it's baked....you get this:


I think it's just heaven in goo form.

Now that you're all hungry.......

*WTW = What the What?!  Much better than throwing around the F word, isn't it Mom?

6 comments:

Mom Cooper said...

First let me say thanks for saying "WTW instead of well you know. So much healthier for you!!!!!!!!! Second let me say you can now out cook/bake your Mother. I think that is saying something because I think I am a pretty good cook. Maybe I just don't use my cooking skills enough anymore. I am for sure going to try those Toffee Bars they look delicious.

Coco Stiletto said...

Since I love editing recipes, we have filled the peppers halfway full with the mixture, added a dollop of ricotta cheese, and then filled the rest in. Deeelish.

Amanda said...

Look at you, Little Miss "I Can't Boil Water", editing recipes! That sounds YUM, by the way!

Marissa said...

I can't believe it's 11pm and I'm still stuffed from dinner, but you managed to make me hungry again with this post! :)

Lauren said...

Your toffee bars are going to be the END of bathing suit season for Lauren as we know it. I think I had FOUR last night... and that's after finishing the pan of the gooey ones this week. Oy.

Irma said...

I am hungry just reading this post!