Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Hey everyone!

Thanks for stopping by! :) Things have been busy around here, little man may not be in school, but it seems like the school year hit us hard anyways. I have been super busy planning our next year of primary and trying to get organized before the holidays hit. Yes, I just mentioned the holidays! September is already half way gone! We have about six weeks until Halloween, and you know how time flies after that. Have you decided what the kids will dress up as? Or what you will for that matter? My little guy keeps changing his mind, anything from Hulk, to Ironman, to Superman, and now to The Little Mermaid. Shhh...don't tell his daddy. ;)

Anyways, I kind of made up a new recipe last night that I wanted to share. Now that it's getting cooler and my house doesn't feel like a sauna when I cook, I felt like making a hot, healthy meal. I've been wanting to try my hand at stuffed peppers again, so I just dove in.

Here is the final product:

What you'll need:

4 Green peppers (or red or yellow, or a variety)
1 yellow onion
2.5 cups brown rice cooked
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, drained (I didn't have any, so I just left it out and it was still good)
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup enchilada sauce
Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle Seasoning
1.5 cups Medium Cheddar cheese
Olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Get a casserole dish and line the bottom with wax paper.

2. Slice the peppers so you can stuff them. I just sliced off the top, but you could cut them length wise as well. Rinse them out and coat them lightly with olive oil. I just used a spray. Place these on the prepared dish and pop them in the oven for maybe ten minutes or so.

3. Brown the ground beef with the chopped yellow onion. Rinse and place in a large bowl. Combine the black beans, corn, rice, and beef and onion mixture together. Stir well.

4. Add in the enchilada sauce slowly, tasting often. You may find you don't need as much or maybe you'd like more. Sprinkle Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle Seasoning throughout in the same way you added the enchilada sauce. You want to do this to taste, I probably used between 1-1.5 Tablespoons. But I'm also a wimp, and you may like it more spicy than this.

5. Add about 1/2-3/4 C of cheese. I added this last so it didn't get too melted.

6. Stuff the peppers and top with the remaining cheese. Place them back on the casserole dish and bake another 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted on top.

Voila! Now all you have to do is enjoy!

**Note, I made these and ended up with extra mixture. I threw the rest in a zip lock baggie and froze it. If you need more then 4 servings, you will probably be able to get more out of this if you just get more cheese to top it off with.**

I love stuffed peppers because they're so easy, taste good, and are good for you. They're also so versatile. Switch out ground turkey for ground beef, or even shredded chicken would be yummy. Paleo diet? Knock out the rice and corn add different varieties of beans and more onion. You can do so many things with it, and it can be changed to fit practically any diet.

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Pizza Disaster

When I started this blog, I wanted it to be real. I wanted to give honest opinions about recipes and projects and give honest tips on how to do crafty and creative things easier without breaking the bank. Well, this is a good opportunity to be honest. I tried a recipe for a pizza dough after having lost my normal one I like a lot. Anyways, this seemed similar enough to the one I normally use, I figured it was close enough and would work. After following the directions exactly, I found the dough was really sticky. I couldn't use it like this, it was sticking to my hand every which way, so I kneaded some more flour in, maybe a cup or two. The recipe made enough for two pizzas so I froze one half of it. My mom has always made homemade pizza on a cookie sheet, so it was a big rectangle. That's what I always do also, makes me feel at home. :) So I greased the pan up, just like I have always done, and start stretching the dough. It was really difficult, more difficult then usual. But I stuck with it. When I got it to fit over the whole thing, I popped it in the oven at the temperature I was told to bake it at. I put it in there without any toppings first to get the dough to cook a bit more (this is what I normally do). Well, when it came out we could hardly get the edges off the sheet. It was terrible! I was so upset! I had already spread the pizza sauce and some of the cheese on before my husband got the ingenious idea to make sure it would even come off. So this is what we were left after that disaster.

I was so frustrated I left the kitchen and told my husband to fix it. And fix it he did. Okay maybe not the mess above, because that is just insanity, but he got the half of the dough I froze and put it on our pizza pan. He found online a tip of putting parchment paper underneath so it doesn't stick. Seriously. How ingenious is that? I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it. So thank goodness for husbands. I was ready to let us have PB&J for dinner. The dough wasn't the greatest taste though. I won't be making it again, parchment paper or not.