World's Easiest Stuffed Green Peppers

I'm always on the lookout for quick and easy meals, especially since I don't like to cook particularly and my children are inevitably picky eaters. One meal that I can get them to eat is Stuffed Green Peppers. I inherited this gem of a recipe from my mom but I'm not sure where she got the original.

What You'll Need:
2 large green peppers, sliced in half horizontally to form "cups" and seeded
1 lb. ground beef
1 cup rice (you can even use the microwave variety or the boil in bag variety if you want)
1 can Sloppy Joe sauce
1/4 log of Velveeta, dice (you can use more or less depending on how cheesy you like it)

What You'll Do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (or 175 celcius).

2. In a medium or large saucepan, place cut and seeded green peppers. Cover the peppers with water, and bring to a boil. Boil for about 10 minutes (just until the peppers are no longer firm, but have a little give when you poke them with a fork). Remove cooked green peppers from the water and place in a 8 or 9 inch square glass baking dish.

3. Meanwhile, make your rice according to the directions, especially if you need to boil water for them and they take awhile.

4. Also, start cooking your meat in a skillet on the stove. Be sure to thoroughly cook the meat, and then drain the fat away. Then add in the can of Sloppy Joe, making sure to stir well.

5. Dice the velveeta into small squares. Stir into the Sloppy Joe/ground beef mixture (it doesn't have to melt now; it will in the oven).

6. Fill each green pepper half with cooked rice and the meat mixture (you can do half of each mixture or more of one or the other, depending on your preferences). You can even thinly slice more Velveeta and top each pepper with it. Bake for approximately 30-45 minutes. Enjoy!

Easy Crockpot Chicken Recipe

With my new job which keeps me away from home until well past 6pm, I'm thankful for my new crockpot. It means I can have dinner on the table as soon as I hit the door, and that's a good thing with two toddlers who are often starving and impatient. Here's my latest foray into my crockpottery:

Easy Crockpot Chicken:

What You'll Need:

1 to 2 lbs. chicken breast or tenderloins (I used frozen)

1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
1 teaspoon Italian seasonings (basil, oregano and garlic powder)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
4 medium potatoes, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped

What You'll Do:
Mix salad dressing, seasonings, and cheese together in measuring cup or bowl. Pour half of the mixture into the bottom of your crockpot. Then add your chicken into the bottom, and top with the remaining half of the mixture. Throw in the assorted vegetables around the chicken. Set the crockpot on low setting, and let cook for 6-8 hours, until chicken is cooked and potatoes are tender.

This serves well on a bed of rice or with rice as a side dish. Enjoy!

Roasted Pears with Goat Cheese

As I may or may not have mentioned a million times, I'm addicted to Pinterest. There's so many fabulous finds out there, but I really love pinning recipes. I'm not too adventurous in the kitchen (I tend to stick to the same old recipes) so I really love getting out there and trying something new. Yes, I own a cookbook. No, it's not nearly as much fun as seeing a pin on pinterest. Here's my attempt at Roasted Pears with Goat Cheese (as adapted from HERE).

What You Need:
2 ripe but firm pears
3.5 oz goat cheese, crumbled
3/4 oz almond slivers
1 sprig rosemary
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp butter

What You Do:
1. Wash the pears and slice them lengthwise into halves. With a small sharp paring knife and a spoon remove the core and seeds from each pear, leaving a round well for the filling.

2. Heat the butter in a skillet and brown the pears, skin side down, on low heat for about 10 minutes. Preheat your oven at 350ºF (180ºC).

3. Place the pears in a ovenproof dish and pour the cooking butter on top. Add half a cup of water in the ovenproof dish. Bake 10 to 15 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, gently toss the goat cheese with the almond slivers and the rosemary in a small bowl. Season to taste. I added some chives.

5. Remove the pears from the oven. Divide the mixture among the pears, mounding it on top of the indentation. Spoon a bit of honey and bake them again for another 10-15 minutes. Serve immediately.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 4

This week's challenge is Dinner. Ugh. I wish I was more of a Martha Stewart in the kitchen. I tend to have a few tried and true recipes and I rotate between them. I've recently tried expanding my horizons. Here's last night's dinner. It was supposed to be Chicken Fried Rice, but since I didn't have soy sauce it wasn't exactly chicken fried rice, but it was still tasty.

It didn't photograph terribly well, but that's probably my fault. I'm simply awful at photographing food. I definitely need loads more practice. Consider it on my to-do list.

 Here's my adapted recipe if you're interested in making this incredibly easy and quick dinner.

Chicken Fried Rice

What You'll Need:

2 - 3 chicken breasts, seasoned and diced
3 scrambled eggs, seasoned with salt and pepper
2 grated carrots

1/2 white onion, finely chopped

3/4 cup peas

2-3 strips bacon, fried

1/2 cup butter

2 tsp. minced garlic

2 cups whole grain rice (non-instant)

soy sauce

What You'll Do:
1.  If you have time, marinate the chicken in soy sauce or your seasoning of choice. I didn't have any soy sauce on hand so I used a splendid mixture of spices that ended up tasting like smoked applewood seasonings. Use whatever suits your tastebuds.

2. Cook the chicken in a small amount of olive oil. Drain any excess olive oil and add the shredded carrots and diced onions. Saute until the onions go clear.

3. Add the peas, garlic, and cooked bacon to your chicken mixture, stirring well and lowering the heat so as not to burn it.

4. Meanwhile, make your rice in a large pan. If you use 2 cups rice, you'll want to boil it in 4 cups water and a dash of salt. If you're using a boxed rice (like the boil in bag) be sure to follow those directions. Once your rice is fully cooked, but not mushy, drain it and add the butter. Mix well. You can also add more of your seasoning that you used on your chicken directly onto the rice as well to make it more flavorfully. Just taste after every seasoning attempt to make sure you don't overdo it.

5. Scramble three eggs and chop it into little pieces. Add the egg and the cooked rice mixture to the chicken pan. Stir. Serve, topped with soy sauce or not, your choice.

Recipe adapted from: One She Two She
Linking up to A Step in the Journey as part of the 20 week photography challenge.

No Bake Mini Cheesecakes

It seems like I do a lot of baking around here, but I finally found a no-bake cheesecake recipe that I love. Hope you enjoy it too!

Easy, No Bake Mini Cheesecakes

What You'll Need:
8 oz. cream cheese package (at room temperature)
4 oz. cool whip
4 oz. sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
6 graham cracker mini pie crusts
Your choice of toppings: I used fresh blueberries and raspberries but you can also use canned pie fillings

What You Do:
Blend together cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla until creamy. You don't want any lumps and this is easiest if the cream cheese is at room temperature. Add cool whip and blend well. Pour mixture into a storage container and refrigerate until ready to eat.

When you're ready to serve your mini cheesecakes, pour the refrigerated cream cheese mixture into the mini pie crusts. Top with your choice of syrups, fruits, or whatever you'd like. I used fresh raspberries and blueberries for mine. Enjoy!

Easiest Sopapillas Ever

Recently we had Mexican night at our house for dinner, so in that spirit I created sopapillas for dessert. They were so yummy and easy that I thought I'd share the recipe. The recipe is adapted from here.

Easy Sopapillas

What You'll Need:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tbsp of cinnamon sugar mixture (optional)
      tortillas (one per person)
1    tbsp honey
1    tbsp powdered sugar (optional)
1    tbsp raspberry sauce (optional)
1    oz. vegetable oil

What You Do:
Heat the oil in a medium skillet (just enough oil to thinly cover the entire bottom surface of the skillet) over medium heat. Meanwhile, in another medium skillet melt the butter and stir in the cinnamon sugar.  Once the oil is warm, fry one tortilla until the bottom is golden brown, then flip and fry the other side until it's golden brown as well. Remove the tortilla from the heat, patting dry with some paper towels if necessary to remove excess oil. Move the fried tortilla into the skillet with the butter, dipping each side into the butter mixture. Plate the tortilla and garnish with extra cinnamon sugar, honey, powdered sugar or raspberry sauce to taste. Serve warm.

That's it! Incredibly easy and quick. They were a huge hit around here. My husband loved his with extra powdered sugar and raspberry sauce. I figure the raspberry sauce isn't a traditional sopapilla topping but it worked out really well. I've already gotten requests to make it again!

Summer Cupcakes

For father's day yesterday I baked some cupcakes. I think they turned out pretty cute, and I definitely had way too much decorating them. That part was definitely more fun than the baking and cleanup part.

Cute, aren't they? I made two types of cupcakes. One design features gummy bears floating on green floaties amid a sea of blue and the other design is gummy bears sunbathing on the beach under an umbrella.

They were almost too cute to eat. Almost, but not quite. The boys were unimpressed with my decorating skills and just wanted to lick the icing off the cupcakes. Oh well. Atleast I know they enjoyed the taste.

Since I'm no baking whiz nor do I have extra time to spend baking from scratch, I used a simple box cake kit and vanilla icing. I made the cupcakes following the directions on the box, and then let them cool. Once they were completely cool, I halved the icing into two separate bowls. One bowl I tinted blue (for the water), and the other yellow (for my sandy beach). I iced the cupcakes and then decorated.

You'll need fruit by the foot or the fruit roll-ups for the beach blankets (cut them to size using kitchen shears), gummy bears, and gummy rings. To make the beach umbrellas, I used toothpicks, my 2" circular punch, and scrapbook paper that I had on hand. I punched the circles out, then cut out a pie-shaped piece from each circle (about 1/8 of the total circle), then roll the paper into a cone shape, and secure it with clear tape. I then stuck the toothpick into the middle of my umbrella. Voila. Perfectly sized beach umbrellas for gummy bears.

This photo looks like they're all on different sized waves..love it!

Cheese Fondue Recipe

Around here, we eat a lot of cheese. We love cheese. We're fortunate that good cheese is easy and cheap to find around here. On special occasions, my husband and I like to eat at The Melting Pot, but since it's so expensive we tend to make our own fondue. Here's my personal cheese fondue recipe:

Cheese Fondue:

What you'll need:
2 cups of Emmenthaler Cheese (shredded) - one of those smaller packages
2 cups of Gouda Cheese (shredded) - one of those smaller packages
1 mozzarella ball, or 1 cup of shredded mozzarella
1 - 2 cloves Garlic (depending on your affinity for garlic)
2 cups Dry White Wine
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp pasta sauce or seasoned tomato sauce
1 tbsp pesto
1 dash of fresh cracked pepper

What you'll do:

It really helps to have a fondue pot (electric one) but if you're doing this on the stove, that'll be okay too. We eat a lot of fondue so we invested in an electric pot. First, cut a clove of garlic in half. Rub the inside of it all the way around the pot, including the bottom. This helps the cleanup and adds flavor.

Pour in your white wine and lemon juice. You can use the cheapest white wine you can find. I buy mine from next door for a euro. Stir in the pesto and pasta sauce. Get the liquid to simmering or just below that. Reduce the heat to low and slowly add one package of cheese. Stir well.

Once it's fairly absorbed in the wine mixture, add the rest of the cheeses slowly. Add the flour, garlic (diced), and cracked pepper.  Let all ingredients mix well, and keep a whisk handy to stir it often. Once you get a smooth texture where everything's blended, you're ready to serve.

I suggest serving your fondue with apples, carrots, broccoli or cauliflower, celery and of course bread. If you use bread for dipping, try to get a french loaf or something with a heavy crust so when you pierce the bread it'll stay on your fondue fork and not get lost in the cheese.

If your fondue is too liquidy, add more cheese (you can add mozzarella, parmesan or almost anything you happen to have around the house). If it's too stiff and immoveable, add a bit more wine.

Hope you enjoy your fondue!

Baked Sheep Cheese Recipe

The husband and I went out to eat at a nearby Italian restaurant and we ordered an appetizer. It sounded really yummy and was even better than we thought it would be. So once we got home (well, the next day) I set out to making it myself. Here's my recipe for Baked Sheetp Cheese (the Greeks call it saganaki).

Baked Sheep Cheese
What you'll need:
2 pieces of sheep cheese (make sure it's sheep, and not goat or cow), each piece around 250 g
3 tbsp olive oil
1 dash of salt
1 dash of pepper
about 1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian seasoned bread crumbs, but you can add in your own oregano and spices)
1 egg
1 dash of lemon juice



Very simple ingredients



What to do:
Whisk egg in a bowl. Add dash of salt and dash of pepper (I use freshly cracked pepper, but any will do). Add a dash of lemon, making sure to mix thoroughly.
Spread the bread crumbs on a plate nearby. Dip your portions of cheese into the egg first (thoroughly covering the surfaces), then cover all the sides with the bread crumbs in the plate.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a skillet on the stove over medium heat. Once heated, place the portions of cheese into the skillet, turning over once to brown both sides. This should take about 5-8 minutes to heat the entire portion.
Remove the cheese from the skillet once you're ready and place on paper towels to absorb the excess olive oil. Place on plates, and serve with crackers or freshly sliced french bread or baguettes. Enjoy!

My coated sheep cheese in the skillet



Yummy!