Not Your Mama's Peppers!

I have never been a fan of stuffed bell peppers. First off green bell peppers don't like me & are completely out of the question - I avoid them like my life depends on it. Red, yellow or orange bells are ok, but I'm SUPER picky about them. Basically my experience with stuffed bells has been slimy exteriors and bland (or worse, over-salted) mushy interiors. All topped by flavorless, sometimes burnt tomato sauce. No thanks! 

Well, recently my husband and I have been trying to do weekly meal planning every Friday night. It helps to make sure we buy only what we need, and has made the dinner hour less stressful since there is no frazzled effort to figure out what to make with 3 little girls tugging at you. We have been eating way more fruits and veggies this way too. Anyhow, this week my husband suggested stuffed peppers during our menu planning discussion. He has some fond memories associated with them since his mom used to make them (the traditional way- he didn't think they were gross). Instead of running away in terror, I suggested we try them with a more modern twist. We dreamed up this recipe and I can now say I LOVE stuffed peppers. Well, MY stuffed peppers anyway! Hubby likes them too! 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup uncooked organic quinoa 

2 cups chicken stock

5 mild Italian sausages, casings removed

1 jar Trader Joe's bruschetta sauce

1 cup fresh spinach, finely chopped

zest of 1 lemon

4 orange bell peppers

canola oil

Garnish: shredded hard cheese like Romano or Parmesan. (Hubby & I both agree that a slice of provolone or shredded mozzarella would be a tasty subsitute)

DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

2) Rinse 1 cup quinoa in running water for several minutes. Then add to a sauce pan with 2 cups of stock. Cook according to package directions.

3) Meanwhile, in a large skillet, crumble and brown the sausage. Turn off the heat. Drain any grease. Strain and rinse the cooked sausage quickly under warm water to remove excess grease. Return to the pan, but do not turn on the heat.

4) Add cooked quinoa, chopped spinach, bruschetta sauce, and lemon zest to the skillet with the sausage. Stir to combine.

5) Cut bell peppers in 1/2, stem to bottom. Remove all seeds and ribs.

6) Generously oil a 9 x 13 baking pan. Place peppers cut side up. Par-bake in the oven for 20 minutes. (That's right - no filling yet!)

7) Remove peppers from the oven. Generously fill peppers with the sausage filling and top with shredded cheese. Return to the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes more, or until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.

Served with a salad and a piece of crusty bread for a super tasty dinner!

Another Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffin

Why make ANOTHER gluten free pumpkin muffin you ask? Good question! I'm in love with Trader Joes pumpkin pie spice and I wanted to try out the Trader Joes All Purpose Gluten Free Flour. The last pumpkin muffins I made were wonderfully dense and moist. These are equally moist, but the texture is lighter and closer to a gluten FULL muffin. AND this time I added my most favorite of all chocolate chips from Guitard. You could add pecans instead I suppose. It's not chocolate, but it would be tasty too. My hubby reluctantly tried 1/2 of one (he's generally not a big fan of gluten free foods) and then asked if he could have a whole one! They are THAT good.

DRY INGREDIENTS

2 cups Trader Joes AP Gluten Free flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp pumpkin pie spices

1/2 tsp kosher 

WET INGREDIENTS

2 large eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar 

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup Trader Joes Spiced Apple Cider

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup pumpkin purée 

OPTIONAL

1 cup Guitard milk chocolate chips 

OR

3/4 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line your muffin tin with paper/foil liners.

2) In a medium sized bowl whisk the dry ingredients. Set aside. 

3) In a separate bowl whisk all the wet ingredients EXCEPT the pumpkin. 

4) Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined. 

5) Add the pumpkin purée and fold in until combined. If using chocolate chips or pecans, fold them in as well.

6) Scoop batter into your prepared muffin pans filling each cup 2/3 full. I like to use an ice cream / cookie scoop. I had enough for 14 muffins. 

7) Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the muffin passes the toothpick test.

8) After baking, let the muffins sit in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

NOTES: I wouldn't change a thing. Well, maybe a few more chocolate chips! And I'm thinking of using this recipe as a base... subbing apple sauce for the pumpkin, blueberries for the chips, lemon  extract for the vanilla, and leaving out the pie spice to make lemon blueberry muffins. Mmmmm I do love muffins. Can you tell? ;)

5 Ingredient Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Muffins

These are embarrassingly easy. And made from a box, so don't shoot me.  But they are so quick and super tasty, I couldn't NOT share them with you! And they are HEALTHY!!!

Here are the ingredients:

Yep. That's is. And if you happen to have pumpkin pie spice, use that instead of the cinnamon & nutmeg, and it's only 4 ingredients!!

1 box of Betty Crocker Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix

1 can of organic pumpkin

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp grated nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 350. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake liners. Mix it all the ingredients together. Divide batter into your prepared muffin tin. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Fast, easy, light, moist, healthy, & most important, DELICIOUS!

I'm planning to make an apple cider glaze for mine. Slightly less healthy, but oh so tasty. 

GLAZE: 1/2 cup apple cider, 1 Tbsp powdered sugar, & 1 Tbsp melted Earth Balance buttery spread. Whisk it all up and drizzle away. Yummy fall flavors in a portable snack. Gotta love.