Stuf'd.

Peppers, that is.

Stuffed peppers are a tricky way of eating half of an entire vegetable while still accommodating the cheese food group. That, my dear friends, is tricky business.

And what's the cheese du jour? BLEU! That bleu cheese, he's a fun guy. Fungi. Get it? I need a vacation.

Stuffed Buffalo Bleu Peppers
6 WW Points Plus+ per peppers <---- new feature of this blog. You're welcome, Aunt Linda!!! :)
Makes 10 peppers


Ingredients

• 2 tsp EVOO
• 6 green bell peppers, two halved and cleaned for stuffing, one diced
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 c tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp Frank's Red Hot or your preferred buffalo hot sauce
• 2 cups brown rice, cooked
• 1 20 oz. package of extra lean ground turkey
• 1 1/2 c. bleu cheese crumbles
• S&P to T (salt and peper to taste)

Directions

• In a large saute pan, saute oil, onion, and diced pepper
• Once softened, add ground turkey and cook til browned
• Add S&P to T
• Add tomato sauce and hot sauce
• Remove from heat and stir in brown rice
• Meanwhile, steam the halved peppers briefly by covering them and microwaving for 3.5 minutes
• Preheat broiler to high
• Put 1 tbsp bleu cheese at the bottom of each pepper
• Pack in 1/2 c. of brown rice/turkey mixture
• Top peppers evenly with remaining bleu cheese
• Broil until golden and bubbly

Defective pepper. I had to play frankenstein and patch this buddy.  

Can you see this?

Why aren't you ALREADY making these? They are so cheesey and still nutritious! Whole grain, vegetables, lean protein, and the ever important cheese food group. Priorities, people. This is your health we are talking about.

Make some pita garlic bread to go with, too, k?

Got buttermilk?

I need something to do with this buttermilk.

I don't want pancakes. They always end up coated in syrup.

I don't feel like chicken, but I make mean oven fried buttermilk chicken tenders. (another time...)

Scones?

OK!

Here's the thing. I pulled the buttermilk out of the fridge but ended up using soy milk cause I have focus issues. Just ask Kameron.

 How about blueberry pomegranate whole wheat scones?

The ingredients.

The audience.

Blueberry Pomegranate Flax Whole Wheat Scones, or "Super Scones"!
Inspired by Skinnytaste Lowfat Pom Scones


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup milk of your choice (soy, almond, buttermilk, cow's milk)
• 1/4 c sugar
• zest of 2 lemons
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg or 1/4 c. egg substitute
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp cold butter, cut into tiny pea sized pieces
• 1/2 c. pomegranate seeds, defrosted (Trader Joe's frozen section!)
• 2/3 c. fresh blueberries
• 2 tbsp whole flax seed
• cooking spray
• 1 egg white (or 2 tbsp liquid egg whites)
• 2 tbsp coarse sugar

Let's Cook!

Preheat oven to 375. Spray a cooking sheet with spray and set aside while you work.

Bowl 1: Combine milk, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, and egg. Whisk.

Bowl 2: Combine flour, baking powder, salt and whisk to combine. Add in chilled butter and cut into flour mixture until butter chunks have disappeared into flour and flour just slightly holds together when you squeeze it. Don't use your hands because the heat from your hands will melt the butter and then your scone won't be... sconey.

Hot tip: Don't muscle into the flax seed package. Those suckers are tiny and a biotch to clean up. 

Delicately fold in blueberries, pom seeds, and flax. You don't want to break the berries.

Mix in wet mixture and stir carefully until combined. Be nice to the berries.

Dump onto a floured surface and knead for about 30 seconds. Don't press too hard because well, you know, the berries... broken record...

Move onto that prepared baking sheet and press out into a 3/4" thick circle. Using a knife, cut into 1/10's. This is extremely complicated geometry, which is a sign that I REALLY need to get a further education. This took me at least 15 seconds to figure out.  Don't cut all the way through to the pan, just half way.

Brush on egg white and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake 22 minutes or until golden.

Don't you want one?

In all their fruity, flaxy, wheaty, healthy, decadent goodness?

You want this one?

You want to eat it with your favorite sweet spread? (2 tsp lemon curd, 2 tbsp plain nonfat greek yogurt?)

Yeah, you do.

Blueberry: vitamin c, fiber, anthocyanin antioxidants / memory booster, GI cancer fighter
Pomegranate: vitamin c, vitamin k, antioxidant polyphenols / immune booster, cancer fighter
Flax: omega-3's, fiber, antioxidant lignans / cancer, heart disease fighter
Whole Wheat: fiber, fiber, fiber / GI efficiency warrior, cancer, obesity fighter

What's not to love?

BeErs, Beets, Battlestar Galactica.

Well, two for three. Or 1.5 for three. I did a little play on words with Beers and Bears there.

What did you do this weekend?

I did this:

Souvees!

Leah, Bjorn, our friend Erin (shout out!) and I headed to an International Beer Festival in Thousand Oaks. We were hoping for some good cougar sight seeing, but we only had one possible D list celebrity sighting instead. I'll take it. It was a really nice California evening with wonderful and entertaining company. And some yummy beers! Bears! Beers!

Today I cooked one of my very favorite vegetables. Kimberly Doyle loves this vegetable one million times more than I do, so I dedicate this blog to YOU, momma! I hope you read this. Will someone tell her to read this? Tell Doris, too.

First things first. Put your kitty apron on.

loooooking crazy.

 We have a great farmers market in Camarillo, and I picked up these gems last week:

Red and Gold, like Gryffindor

Roasted Beets

My favorite way to prepare beets is roasted. I think you get a lot more flavor and concentrated moisture than when you boil them. I like to eat them slightly warm on a salad with a strong cheese (goat, bleu, gorgonzola) and balsamic vinegar. Golden, red, whatever, they are ALWAYS good. Yes, Kim, ALWAYS.

Note: This time I tried putting all the beets in one foil pouch to cook them but I recommend individually wrapping the beets snugly in foil in the future. The skins will come off more easily that way.

Ingredients

• Beets (try to pick out beets that are equally sized for equal cooking time)
• Foil
• EVOO
• Salt
• No desire to maintain a manicure

Directions

• Wash and trim beets
• Drain dry
• If necessary, cut beets in halves/thirds so that all are the same size
• Wrap each beet individually in a sheet of foil with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt
• Wrap tight so that any leaking juices don't burn in the oven
• Place on a baking sheet
• Bake at 375 for 45 minutes (this time is for lime-sized beets... use your judgment)
• To test for doneness, unwrap one beet (BE CAREFUL!) and stick a knife in it. If it slides out easily, it's done!
• Let cool 15-30 minutes, depending on how impatient you are
• Unwrap and skins will slip right off!
• Slice to your preference and serve

Arrrreee ya done?

INTERMISSION. INTERMISSION. INTERMISSION. INTERMISSION.

Oh, hey sprinkles! You gonna help cook?

Where ya going?

Oh.

RESUME BLOG POST. RESUME BLOG POST. RESUME BLOG POST.

And no salad is complete without a homemade vinaigrette, right? I rarely like balsamic vinaigrettes out of a bottle. And I don't like the excessive oil. So I make my own.

Basic Vinaigrette

Can be adapted one trillion different ways. My favorite way is to add 1 tbsp of nonfat plain greek yogurt to make a creamy balsamic. Amazing!

Ingredients

• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp very finely diced (or grated) red onion
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1.5 tbsp good dijon mustard ( I recommend Annie's or Grey Poupon)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 c. balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together, in order, with a whisk. The mustard will make the oil and vinegar emulsify.

And now you have all the skillz to make a fancypants salad. Like this one:

Lettuce, red onion, red and gold beets, goat cheese, chicken, vinaigrette.

Wonderful way to end the weekend! Who am I kidding... every day is a weekend right now. Gotta get a job...

So now I look like I murdered someone....

And the kitchen looks like a crime scene.

But it was totally deliciously worth it.

Back in the Saddle Again

Greetings Earthlings!

Today started like this:

About damn time. That's right, It's back to Weight Watchers with me. I had huge success with WW in middle school, and again after the freshman 15. And I'm bacccckkkkkk. Between sixth and seventh grade I lost about thirty pounds. Thirty pounds!  Most sixth graders only weigh thirty pounds, right? (I have a really hard time judging kids' ages...)

After my first year of college (read: binge drinking, cafeteria, no mommy) I lost twenty pounds over summer. The only problem was I wasn't done growing and maturing so my habits didn't stick. I didn't know what it meant to cook for myself or what healthy living meant. I really didn't know how crucial fueling your body right and exercising is to your longevity.

My philosophy is that we were given this one body and we only have one lifetime to treat it right. Don't get me wrong, I have done many many terrible things to my body (including starving it with diet root beer and carrot sticks then binging on cookies the next day for an entire summer in high school).  I still occasionally do terrible things to my body like eating processed food and drinking too much diet coke. However I now have the maturity and sensibility to understand that when I eat pure, whole foods I feel better! When I exercise, my head is in the right place and I sleep better at night.

My goals are to relearn healthy habits, especially in terms of portion control. I don't think I will ever look at food purely as fuel... I see cooking and food presentation as an art, really. My relationship with food is a little abnormal, and I know I have room for improvement. I already have healthy food habits and decent exercise habits, but it's time to hone in on them, put my nose to the grindstone and drop the extra pounds I'm carrying around. I dug through old family pics this morning to find some of me at my chunkiest in the last ten years. Trust me, some were a lot worse, but so much that I refused to even look twice at them.

Don't mind Leah, my sister, in the right picture. She must have been in a Posh Spice phase. Ps my momma is a lifetime weight watcher and she looks nothing like this anymore. She's svelte and buff as shit these days (she's my inspiration!). These pics are circa 2004/2005, right in the midst of the freshman 15. I don't want to go back there.

Remember when I mentioned mascarpone cheese the other day? Let me follow through with a promise! Now you're probably thinking, HOLD IT THERE SISTER, I thought you were on a diet?! The great thing about WW (weight watchers) is that nothing is "off-limits", you just have to budget for it. And my dad took care of all the leftovers for me, so really, the best tip is to have a human garbage disposal in your home to eliminate any temptations for overeating. 

Ginger and Fig Mascarpone with Puff Pastry

adapted from Fig and Gingered Mascarpone Napoleons, Gourmet, 2001

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. Mascarpone cheese
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp candied ginger, diced
• 1 large or 2 small fresh figs, stems removed and chopped 
• Puff pastry cookies
• Pretty fig, sliced for topping cookies

Directions

• Mix together mascarpone, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, candied ginger and chopped figs

• Chill in fridge for 20-30 minutes at least
• When ready, dollop 1-2 tbsp of cream on top of cookie and a slice or two of fig, like below

If you stopped reading this a bit ago because you don't like figs, I understand. Texture is gross. Replace figs in the recipe with nectarines, peaches, plums, strawberries, or mango. Also the sugar could be easily replaced with agave or honey to taste if you are watching your sugar intake. It's probably a better choice anyway!

That's what I love about cooking. You can never be wrong. If it tastes good to you, then it's good.

Here's something that's never good:

The number of bruises on my body. 

Moving totally wrecked me. Always does. Gotta stop moving so much. Good thing unemployment is so low-impact. (Bitter).

 And on that note, Monster.com awaits me.