What's For Dinner

3 Alarm Stuffed Bell Peppers

Last night I peered into the fridge around five p.m. still unsure of what I'd be putting on the table for dinner. I dug through the veggie drawer and found four orange and red bell peppers, and thus it was decided, time for stuffed peppers. My dad had yet to decide on his dinner plans either, so I texted him the idea and all of the steps along the way, and even though we were two hours and a hundred miles apart, we made dinner together. From Lincoln to Reno they turned out great. They are quick, easy, and so good!

One crucial step is to cook the bell peppers in the oven first before you stuff them. If you try to cook them fully stuffed the rice will dry out, and they take a lot longer.

Ingredients:
4 bell peppers
1 lb. ground turkey
1 onion
1 cup of rice
1 cup of 3 Alarm Colby Jack Cheese or 1 cup of cheddar cheese
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 
salt, pepper, granulated garlic
light olive oil or veg. oil

Directions:
1) Start the rice.
2) Cut the tops off of 4 bell peppers, drizzle them with a light oil, salt them, and bake them upside down for about 15 to 20 minutes at 375 degrees. (You want them to start looking a little wrinkled).
3) While rice & peppers are cooking. Saute a chopped onion in oil about five minutes. Add ground turkey, season with W sauce, salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. I also use the left over bell pepper from the tops and add them at this point.
4) Add diced tomatoes to turkey.
5) Once the rice is done, combine rice and turkey mixture. Taste it. Add salt or whatever it needs.
6) Take peppers out of the oven. Stuff them as full as possible, press cheese all over the tops, and bake 15 more minutes.

*I used a 3 alarm spicy Colby Jack cheese for my husband and brother's peppers, and they LOVED it!

Here's a picture from my Dad's kitchen, he only made two, but served the extra filling on the side! Enjoy...

Beef Stewguignon

I dove into the glorious world of beef bourguignon about six years ago, and followed the instructions carefully and attentively about three times. I loved it, but after making beef stew a few times after that I decided it was time for a marriage of the two. So all these years later, it's more likely you'll find a combo of both of these delicious dinners in my kitchen, rather than one or the other.

Bourguignon calls for an entire bottle of red wine, which is one of the main reasons I love the recipe. I will never deny this dish of the wine. However, the recipe for bourguignon is a little too fussy, and calls for bacon. Not that I have anything wrong with bacon, but in this dish I don't think it adds enough flavor to be worth the extra calories. And then there's beef stew, which falls a little flat for me. Mix the two recipes together, and you check all of the boxes.

You want your meat to be fork tender, so make this dish a few hours before dinner time.

Beef Stewguignon

serves 4

1 lb. beef stew meat (mine was actually 1.33 lbs, no big deal)

1 bottle of red wine

1 tbsp. olive oil

6 shallots (peeled and halved) or pearl onions

1 head of garlic (peeled and halved)

2 carrots 

1 large potatoes

1/2 bunch of celery

1 cup of beef stock

fresh thyme
salt
pepper

1) Prep your vegetables, dry your stew meat in paper towels, and season the meat with salt and pepper. You want to make the veggies roughly the same size to ensure similar cooking times.


2) Get the olive oil hot in your pan. Sear the meat on all sides and remove from the pan.

3) Sauté shallots or onions, and garlic *watch garlic closely, it burns if you're not stirring it. 

4) Add carrots, celery, and potatoes to the pan for a few minutes.

5) Then add the seared pieces of stew meat back to the pan, an entire bottle of wine, cup of beef stock, and fresh thyme. 

6) Then cover and cook at 300 degrees in the oven for at least 3 hours. I taste the stew at the end to make sure the flavor is right, I usually add a splash of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper too.

What's for Dinner?

Turkey Chili

I make this recipe all of the time because it's healthy, and really easy! And there are several different ways to achieve the same taste: slow cooker, dutch oven, sauce pot…

I usually serve it with cheddar cheese, scallions, avocado, sour cream, cilantro rice, and quick corn muffins.  

Ingredients
1 onion
1 can chili beans (pintos or pinoquitos)
1 can kidney or black beans (optional)
1 can white corn (optional)
1 lb. ground turkey
1 can stewed tomatoes (Rotel tomatoes with green chilies will make it a little spicier, or tomato sauce) *you can even use tomato sauce if you're out of everything else!
1 pack of Taco Seasoning
1 can of beer

Brown the ground turkey and onions together in a tbsp. of vegetable oil in a dutch oven for about ten minutes with the taco seasoning. Then dump everything in and cook.

I start it in the stove, then let it sit in the oven at a low temp. until I'm ready for dinner usually about two hours at 300 degrees F.

Or if I only have a half hour I make that work too by cooking it on the stove on medium high heat and stirring it. A lot of the flavor comes from browning the onions, turkey, and the Taco Seasoning. Longer is better, but not crucial.

I even alter this recipe to be vegetarian by subbing the meat for sauteed zucchini, squash, and peppers, and it's still very good!