Healthy Dinner For Tomorrow

For years I have been teased about my lack of skills in the kitchen. It’s really a simple matter of dislike. I dislike making the effort to prepare a meal when I’d be perfectly happy with a peanut butter apple, bowl of cereal or olives right from the can. Unfortunately, I’m the only one in my family who feels this way. They prefer hot meals. So my husband and I came to an agreement – he does most of the cooking and I do the dishes.

Imagine his surprise when he came home from work and saw me in the kitchen surrounded by ingredients, camera in hand. “I need more blog material. I’m making stuffed peppers but it may be awhile.” That was how I greeted him. He didn’t care. He gave the blog a big cheer and told me I really should include at least three recipes a week.

Turns out I had a wonderful time stopping and posing all of the ingredients, trying to get the perfect shot. However, it was a bit distracting. Dinner wasn’t ready until nine that night. Still everyone was smiling and not gagging after their first bite. Success!

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

• 4-6 Bell Peppers
• Yellow Onion
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• Baby Squash
• 1 Cup Cooked Brown Rice
• 1 Pound Soy Crumbles
• 8 Ounces Tomato Sauce
• 1-1/2 Cups Vegetable Broth
• 1/2 Cup Shredded Cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Wash the peppers and slice off the top.

Dice the onion.

Put the squash inside the peppers for a creative photo. Don’t they look like they’re having a nice little conversation? “Do you think she knows what she’s doing?”  “No way, didn’t you notice? She cooked three cups of rice instead of one! I bet she’ll forget and add all three cups.”

Dice the squash and place them in a pan with the onion and garlic. Then add the rice. (One cup instead of three)

Okay, you can add the soy crumbles first and then add the rice. Basically, just mix it all together. Oh no, I forgot the vegetable broth… add that too.

And the tomato sauce.

Wait, that’s not tomato sauce. Oh, that’s when company showed up and I needed to add more crumbles. But I suggest you cook the crumbles in a second pan and then add them to your already cooked mixture. Notice the frozen crumbles on top. Oops! Take a deep breath, look out your kitchen window and say, “I can do this!” Then put on the theme from Rocky.

After everything is thoroughly cooked, fill the peppers and add cheese on top. Or if you want to get creative, layer the cheese in between the mixture. Bake for 35 minutes.

Guess what happens when you hold a camera up to a steaming pan? You get a mystical picture of stuffed peppers. I like the word mystical. It reminds me of a certain story…

Done diddy done, done, done! Wait! Go back! I forgot a step. You were supposed to whisk together some tomato sauce and vegetable broth in the bottom of the pan before you put the peppers in. I don’t think it really matters though. You could probably just stick the peppers right in there. Go ahead, give it a try.

When the peppers are complete and the family and company are all seated and ready to eat…

Make sure you take a picture of your cat, Hugo, because he’s just so cute.

Hmm, I wonder what I’ll cook next week?