Measuring Cups, Optional

Stuffed Green Peppers

categories: Posts, Recipes, Vegetables & Sides

I found out that the trick to Arabic food, and stuffing specifically is that you can pretty much stuff anything using the same simple stuffing recipe – tomatoes, peppers, grape leaves, cabbage, potatoes – you name it, we stuff it.

And you won’t believe how easy it is to make this all-purpose stuffing. So, how does it work exactly? Well, basically it means that everything you stuff has an Arabic taste to it. Which in my opinion is delicious. Stuffed Green Peppers are super easy to make – done in under an hour.

Print

Yum

Stuffed Green Peppers

Ingredients

2 Green Peppers
½ lb Ground Lean Beef
½ Onion, chopped
½ teaspoon Allspice
Salt
Pepper
Lemon Juice
½ can Tomato Paste
1 espresso-sized cup Lemon Juice
Olive Oil
Water to taste

Instructions

Heat oil in a medium-sized pan, add onion and cook until translucent.
Add ground beef.
Add Allspice, salt and pepper and brown the meat.
In the meantime, cut open two green peppers, removing the seeds. You can discard the tops.
Once the meat is browned, spoon the mixture into each green pepper.
Mix together tomato paste, lemon juice and water and pour into a baking dish.
Carefully place each stuffed pepper into the baking dish and cover with aluminum foil.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Notes

Nutrition Information: Cals 371. Carbs 11g. Fat 28g. Protein 24g. Sodium 60mg. Sugar 5g.

Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by Yummly Rich Recipes

https://www.measuringcupsoptional.com/stuffed-green-peppers/

Cauliflower Mash

categories: Posts, Recipes, Vegetables & Sides

I love mashed potatoes. They’re so creamy and delicious, I always regret it after I’ve devoured more than one serving of mashed potatoes. Aside from the calories that are associated with mashed potatoes, it always seemed like so much work to actually make them from scratch. I’ve definitely cheated with the frozen bag that you add milk and butter to. Amazing.

This post isn’t about mashed potatoes, but rather mashed cauliflower. Cauliflower Mash is definitely an acquired taste but I love cauliflower so it’s perfect for me.

Since my mom’s on a health kick, I decided to treat her to a new recipe. This recipe is super simple and makes for chunky-style mash minus all the calories. The chicken gravy was a whole-nother-story. Apparently adding corn starch to boiling chicken stock creates clumps. Don’t try it at home.

Cauliflower Mash Recipe

Ingredients

1 head Cauliflower

1 can White beans

Directions

Wash and cut the Cauliflower into 1-inch pieces.

Steam the cauliflower in a steamer. When the cauliflower is soft, mash with a potato masher and add the white beans.

Mash to desired consistency.

Servings: 6

Nutrition Information: Cals 77. Carbs 16g. Fat 0g. Protein 6g. Sodium 186mg. Sugar 2g.

Weekend Lunch: Falafel

categories: Posts, Recipes

Homemade falafel requires a food processor. I registered for one – a food processor that is – and then realized it didn’t really match our kitchen, and I didn’t have a place to store it. So we returned the food processor in the hopes that I’ll find one I like. I’ve been searching, but they’re either too big or too small or don’t have all the functions I want/need. I’m sure I’ll buy one, eventually.

Despite the small setback, we’re having falafel sandwiches for lunch today. How? Well, a few weeks ago I was browsing the rice/international aisle at the grocery store and I came across this Near East Vegetarian Falafel Mix.

I’m a bit surprised to see falafel labeled “vegetarian,” considering falafel is basically fried ground chickpeas. Which leads me to wonder what non-vegetarian falafel would be like. Falafel mutation thoughts aside, I decided to give this Worcester, Massachusetts-based Armenian family-owned product a try.

After following the frying directions on the package,I usually like falafel with pita bread, some tahini on the insides, andadd pickled turnips. Today, I wasn’t really in the mood for a sandwich so I mixed some of the falafel with spinach, feta cheese and some tahini.

Final verdict – they didn’t taste bad, but they definitely didn’t taste like falafel. Not only that, but they were falling apart as I was frying them. Fail.

Lamb Kabob Patties with Skinny Garlic Aioli

categories: Lamb, Posts, Recipes

I’m not sure why I was craving Ground Lamb Kabobs, but I took the meat out of the freezer the day and put it in the fridge in anticipation that I was going to use the meat for something delicious. So I decided to make “Lebanese style” ground lamb patties for lunch today.

Unless I’m lying around the house with no plans to leave, I usually put my contacts in first thing in the morning. Well, this week I’m on “Winter Break” so, I wasn’t planning to put my contacts in until I planned the leave the house later this afternoon. (I use the quotes because since the beginning of my winter break I’ve been doing at least four hours of work daily. Some vacation.) Contact-less, I got working on my ground lamb patties. First, I diced the onion. Bad idea. My eyes instantly became sore and started tearing. I didn’t realize that my contacts shielded my eyes from onion-cutting irritation – until today.

Minus the eye irritation, the lamb patties turned out well and my Skinny Garlic Aioli was de-licious!

Lamb Kabob Patties with Skinny Garlic Aioli Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb Ground Lamb

½ Bunch Parsley finely chopped

1 Medium Onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon Seven Spice (can be found at your local Middle Eastern Grocery)

Directions

Mix together ground lamb, seven spice, parsley and onion.

Form into round patties.

Grill in a grill pan or a cuisineart Panini grill.

Serve in Arabic Bread with Skinny Garlic Aioli

To make the Skinny Garlic Aioli, mix together 6oz plain fat-free greek yogurt, ¼ cup light mayo and 5 cloves garlic, minced.

Servings: 8-10 patties

Nutrition Information: Cals 123. Carbs 2g. Fat 9g. Protein 8g. Sodium 34mg. Sugar 1g.

Chocolate Covered Candy Canes

categories: Posts, Recipes

I love candy canes. Who doesn’t? That’s why I went ahead and bought a box of candy canes for myself. The season for candy canes is pretty much over. I think Christmas marks the end of that season. So I decided to use up the candy canes before it’s too late.

Chocolate Covered Candy Canes Recipe

Ingredients

1 box Candy Canes

3 Squares Baker’s Chocolate

¼ cups Chocolate Chips of your choice (Milk or dark work best)

Directions

Melt the chocolate in the microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring between heatings.

Line a baking sheet with wax paper.

Dip each candy cane into the chocolate and carefully place the candy canes on the baking dish. Refrigerate for at least 1 hours until hardened. Enjoy!

Be careful unwrapping the candy canes – that’s where I broke a good number of them. They’re still delicious – just broken.

Gingerbread House

categories: Posts

There’s a video – probably covered with dust in a closet or a drawer or even a box – at my parents house featuring my sister and I as children (probably around 6 years old) building a gingerbread house. It’s my most vivid home video memory. You can only imagine how proud two little girls were to have built a gingerbread house from what seemed to be “scratch.” I think we did a pretty good job, minus the frosting that found its way to the kitchen floor and all over the table. Let’s not forget us licking the frosting off our fingers in between explaining to the camera (aka future us) what we had accomplished.

This year, in our adult life, we decided to recreate the fun with our two younger brothers (both of which are in high school). It was much more fun when we were youngsters. But the outcome was much less messy. And did I mention that my brother took over the whole project and tried to build it himself? I guess that’s what you get when you get other siblings involved – namely the sibling that’s convinced he’ll be a civil engineer and thinks that building a gingerbread house is a test of his ability to become said engineer.

We’re obviously not very artistic.

The gaping hole is a “garage.”