Crumbdoodles

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Main Dish, Side Dishes, Vegetables, Yum 2 Responses »

Jul 022012

I am really excited to tell you guys about this recipe for two reasons: it’s so stinkin’ delicious AND it is filled with veggies. I’m on a mission to overcome my childhood fear of green veg. It has apparently followed me into adulthood, and I refuse to give in to my tendency to avoid all things vegetable. I used to think stuffed peppers were just relics from back in The Day, wherein also lie the remains of “Hey, vegetables in cold gelatin is good idea, especially if it’s shaped like something!” and also “Canned food: if you put parsley on it, it’s fancy.“ I mean, have you seen some of these recipes? Shudder. I wonder, will people 50 years from now look back and think, “Oh my god, they put bacon in everything!” or maybe, “What is the deal with the sriracha?” I have to believe that our tastes have advanced as a culture enough that such a thing will not happen. (Everyone knows bacon and sriracha SHOULD GO ON EVERYTHING.)

Anyway, that what was quite a fun Google tangent. Yay, image search! The bottom line here, what I’m really trying to say, is that these stuffed peppers are not weird-looking, scary, or unappetizing. They are DUHLISHUS. And homemade too. No scary Jenga-with-canned-food here. (see what I did there? Because Jenga is a game where you stack a bunch of identical things on top of each other, and some of those old recipes look like just piling up variations of processed corn/soy/meat by-product on top of….oh, if I have to explain it, it’s not funny.)

These are yummy, smokey, spicy, cheesey, crunchy. They’re easy to make, if a bit time-consuming; the recipe makes up for that by making a lot of filling, so you won’t have to make it again for awhile. Another Macheesmo win, for sure. I ate a whole poblano pepper, without mushing it up and trying to hide it (my usual trick with veggie consumption). And, this makes a hefty amount of filling, so you can either make up a whole bunch of peppers and freeze them, or use the filling for tacos, omelets, whatever. At roughly 450 calories per two filled halves, you can’t beat this dish for comfort-food satisfaction without the subsequent guilt. The point is, make these. Soon.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers
Adapted from Macheesmo
Makes about 5 cups of filling, enough for 5 whole peppers (10 halves)

Ingredients:
1 Tbs canola oil
1 small vidalia onion, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1 cup brown rice or wild rice mix
Water
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/3 cup salsa
1 can black beans
Kernals from 2 ears sweet corn (about 1 heaping cup kernals)
2 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese, plus extra for topping (about 1/4 cup extra total per 6 pepper halves)
Poblano peppers (1 pepper per person)
Garnishes: sour cream, lime juice, avocado, taco sauce, hot sauce, etc.

In large skillet with a lid, heat oil until shimmering. Add onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Be careful not to let the onion brown, or it will taste bitter. Add in the cumin, paprika, and crushed red pepper, and cook about 30 seconds or until fragrant. Stir in the rice and cook about 3 minutes, stirring very frequently to toast evenly. Stir in diced tomato and salsa, and add the amount of water directed for the type of rice you are using. Bring to a simmer, cover, reduce heat and cook for the amount of time directed for your rice variety. Remove from heat and fluff with fork. Allow to cool a bit. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375F and line a baking pan with aluminum foil. Rinse your peppers and slice each in half lengthwise to form two “boats.” Leave the stem end on so the filling does not leak out the ends. Line up your peppers in the prepared pan, open side up. Once your filling is cooled off a bit, stir in 2 cups of the cheese until evely distributed. Scoop your filling mixture into the pepper cups, packing in well and leaving the tops slightly heaped. Sprinkle filled peppers with a little extra cheese, if using. Bake in preheated oven 20-25 minutes, or until peppers are just beginning to soften (filling will be bubbly and the cheese will be melted). Serve immediately with garnishes as desired.

Any extra filling can be refrigerated for a couple of days, or frozen for longer storage.

Oatmeal Coconut Protein Pancakes

Breakfast, Yum No Responses »

Jun 302012

Since I’m working out pretty hard to train for Tough Mountain, I’m trying to increase my protein intake and decrease my consumption of wheaty carbs. I recently got some oat flour in my Foodie Penpal box and decided to make my normal Saturday pancakes with oat flour and high-protein Greek yogurt instead of kefir. I also am trying to cut out added sugar, so I left the sugar out of my usual recipe and I skipped the maple syrup or honey on top. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. The resulting pancake is hearty with a nice toasty oat flavor and a light texture. These babies pack 24 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber, as well as some healthy fats from the coconut. Paired with some fresh local strawberries and another couple tablespoons of Greek yogurt, these were an excellent start to my morning.

A couple notes: first, I use an electric griddle. I find that none of my skillets work well for pancakes so I stick with the griddle. The upside of this is that I can cook all three pancakes at once. Second, I use Earth Balance to grease my griddle. I find it works well, it’s less oily than straight canola oil, and it has less saturated fat than butter. That being said, it’s still a heavily processed food, not to mention solid at room temp (when its components are not solid at room temp in their natural state), so that makes me question its overall healthiness. The website says it has no hydrogenated oils in it, but then I have to ask, how do they get it solid? And how can I trust what they say anyway, since for decades we thought margarine was going to save us all from obesity and heart disease? I currently use it because I paid 5 bucks for it and I’m trying to use it up. When I run out, I’m not sure I’ll buy it again. Third, you can double this recipe easily to make enough pancakes for 2 or 3 people.

Oatmeal Coconut Protein Pancakes
Adapted significantly through many incarnations from Macheesmo
Makes 3 pancakes, serves 1

Ingredients:
1/4 cup oat flour
2 Tbs unsweetened dessicated coconut
1/2 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
1 extra large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

In medium bowl, stir together flour, coconut, baking soda, and salt. Add the yogurt, egg, and vanilla all at once and stir until batter is smooth. Heat a frying pan or griddle and grease it with a little bit of butter, canola oil, or Earth Balance. Pour batter onto pan to make 3 mediumish pancakes. Cook without touching them until the edges start to look dry and some bubbles appear on the top surface. Flip and cook until golden brown.

June Foodie Penpals Reveal!

Foodie Pen Pals, Fun Things 4 Responses »

Jun 302012

Wow, time has flown since the last Foodie Penpal Reveal. Summer is always a busy time of year, but this year feels more busy somehow. I think what makes this summer stand out is that it’s the first summer in several years that I am not doing too many things at once. The past three summers I was in grad school (or just graduated) and working, the past two of which I was working at a summer camp for boys in rural Maine. I loved my camp job (it physically pained me not to go back this year), but one thing about camp is it’s on all the time. No 9-5 job there. The office (where I worked) is open 8a-10p 7 days a week, and we got one day off each week guaranteed, a second day off if we really needed it. I routinely worked 55-65hr/wk, plus the commute was 30-40 minutes, so I had very little time for anything else. This year I’m not worried about school, or working a million hours at camp, or doing anything else that requires a huge chunk of my time. I even gave up on the idea of a big garden this year; I had grand plans for gardening, but thankfully I realized early on this spring that I had other things I’d rather be doing, like train for Tough Mountain (and the Cure, and the Diablo Trail Adventure), work on my Buddha garden, climb some local summits with the hubs, read, lay in the hammock, watch “Firefly,” etc. I’m so happy I made the choice to hold off on a big garden until next year. Not only does it give me time to do other things, but not having a garden also forces me to get familiar with the vendors at local farmers’ markers and farmstands. I still plan to do some canning this season (another of my projects), so I’ll be stocking up on locally-grown produce from some of our friendly farmers and turning it into delicious canned goodness to enjoy in the cold months.

And now that we’ve followed that rabbit trail for awhile, how about we get back to Foodie PenPals? This month I was matched up with the awesome Alexis @ PumpedPumpkin. Turns out Alexis is into the Paleo lifestyle and weight lifting — and I am interested in both of those things! Once again, my Foodie PenPal match is perfect. Alexis sent me a box filled with all these goodies:

Clockwise from top left: almond flour, Trader Joe's caramel popcorn, Bobo's Oat Bar, Trader Joe's Sugar, Chocolate, and Coffee grinder, Bob's Red Mill Oat Flour, All Natural tropical fruit leather, High Country Energy Chunks, peanut butter cookie Larabar, and unsweetened dried mango slices. Center: White Cheddar Pirate's Booty.

Can I just say that every single thing in this box was awesome? So many noms! I specifically asked for interesting flours, and I also expressed an interest in Paleo, so Alexis sent me a jar of almond flour from her stash. I’m so excited to use it! One of the reasons I’m interested in Paleo is because I feel my diet relies to heavily on grains, especially wheat. I don’t know if I’ll ever go full Paleo, but I am working on cutting my consumption of wheat down drastically. The oat flour Alexis also sent will help with that too!

The Trader Joe’s caramel corn was amazing. Emphasis on the word “was.” I made it last for several days by measuring out a serving in one of my favorite Fiesta teacups and enjoying it as a mid-afternoon snack to get me through the last hour or so of work. Nom!

I’m not sure if you can tell in the photo, but the Bobo’s Oat Bar did not make it to the photo shoot unscathed. I was hungry when I was opening my penpal box, and as soon as I laid eyes on the oat bar I was all up in that goodness. Thankfully I only ate the one corner before I remembered I needed to take pictures!

The hubs is especially excited about the sugar/chocolate/coffee grinder. He is quite the barista, and he makes lattes every day with his Aeropress and his French Press (which is an amazing steamed milk frother, little tip), and he likes to grind some of these tasty bits on top for fanciness.

Super excited about the oat flour. I love Bob’s Red Mill!

The fruit leather? Yeah, that was gone about half a second after I snapped the photo. So. Good.

I’ve been using the energy chunks to fuel before my workouts; just 2 chunks and I’m good to go! They’re yummy and peanut-buttery with lots of seeds and fruit bits in them. Not heavy at all, so I can munch on two and go for a run without feeling like there’s a brick in my stomach.

Larabars? I <3 them. Enough said.

Oh, dried mango, how you remind me of beautiful days on a cruise ship in the Caribbean! This mango is especially tasty…no added sugar, so you really get the full tropical brightness of mango in every bite.

Pirate’s Booty? Delish. SpongeBob? Awesome. Spongebob-themed Pirate’s Booty? AWESOMELY DELISH. I took the photo of the Pirate’s Booty first and then proceeded to munch on it while opening and photographing everything else. So good! Also, “booty,” hee hee. Snerk.

So thank you Alexis for an awesome Foodie Penpal Box!

Want to be a Foodie Penpal? It’s easy to sign-up and you can participate for just 1 month or stay in it every month! There are a few (easy!) rules, though, so check out all the details at the Lean Green Bean. You don’t want to be left out of all the foodie fun!

(To see what I sent to my Foodie Penpal this month, head over to visit Chung-Ah @ DamnDelicious!)

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