Stuffed Bell Pepper

A great recipe for leftover Spanish rice.  This is delicious and chock full of vegetables.

Ingredients:

- Two green bell peppers

-  Half of a red bell pepper, chopped.

- 1/4 cup Spanish rice

- Pollo Asada or any seasoned or marinated chicken

- Monterey jack cheese

- Queso Fresco

- One roma tomato, chopped

- 1/4 cup chopped onion

- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic

- 7-8 diced shitaki mushrooms

- 1/8 cup chicken broth

- One small jalapeno chopped (If you do not like a lot of heat, remove the seeds)

Stuffing Mixture:

Preheat overn to 350 degrees.  Cube the chicken into bite size chunks.  Saute the onion or "sweat" it until it is transculent, add tomato, garlic, and jalapeno, and chicken.  Chop half of the red bell pepper and add to mixture.  Season with salt, pepper, and chili powder.  Let cook until vegetables are soft and chicken is mostly cooked.  Add mushrooms and spanish rice.  Add 1/8 cup of broth to maintain moisture.  Let cook down for a few minutes until chicken is fully cooked.  Add a little bit of the queso fresco.

Green Bell Peppers:

Cut the tops off of two green bell peppers and remove the seeds.  Stuff with mixture and top with monterey jack cheese.  Place in preheated oven until cheese is bubbly and bell pepper is cooked but still slightly crunchy.   

Portabella Mushroom and Brie Bruschetta

This is our favorite bruschetta variation.  It is an original recipe of A&E Eats and it is delicious.

Ingredients:

Nutrition Facts generated from Food.com

- French baguette
- Soft brie cheese
- 2 portabella mushroom tops
- Chopped garlic
- Fresh parsley
- White wine
- Olive oil

Cut the baguette into rounds at an angle.  Place on cookie sheet and drizzle bread with olive oil. 

Chop the portabella mushroom tops
(I recommend removing the stems and throwing them away as they are a little too tough and chewy).  Heat a little olive oil and butter in a saute pan.  Add mushrooms and chopped garlic.  Season with salt and pepper and a splash of white wine.  Cook down until mushrooms are cooked completely.  As the mushrooms cook down they will let off additional moisture.  Once the mushrooms are cooked, drain the excess liquid.  Put mushroom mixture back in saute pan and add the chopped fresh parsley.

Grill the bread until you have some nice grill marks and the bread is nice and crunchy.  Spread brie cheese thickly on each piece of bread.  Since the bread is still hot, the cheese will melt.  Pour mushroom mixture on top.  Serve immediately.
 
Makes: 20 pieces
Serving size: 2 pieces

De-constructed Grilled (Baked) Potato

Even no-occasion everyday meals can be fun with a little creativity and this de-constructed grilled potato is a delicious example of this. 

This is a great variation to the traditional baked potato and the best thing about it is the potato cooks in fifteen minutes rather than a full hour as a tradional baked potato.

Potato dish shown in accompaniment with tender petite filet and sauteed broccolini

De-constructed Grilled (Baked) Potato:

Ingredients:

- Two russet potatoes
- Sour cream
- Butter
- Chopped chives
- Grated sharp cheddar cheese

Slice the potato into thin slices.  Lay potato slices flat on a cookie sheet and season both sides of potato slice with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder.  Drizzle olive oil on top.  Grill on high until potato has nice grill marks on the outside and is slighly crispy but soft on the inside.

Melt a tablespoon of butter and mix with two tablespoons of sour cream - use as garnish.  Also, garnish with grated sharp cheddar cheese and chopped chives.

The meat on the plate is a black pepper petite tender beef filet seared on the grill until cooked medium rare (usually about 140 degrees internal temp).  Wrap in tin foil and let the meat sit for a few minutes so the juices do not run out.

The vegetable is broccolini, a hybrid between broccoli and gai lan, sauteed in olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

This whole healthy meal took only 30 minutes to prepare.

The Moist Delicious Cornbread

The Moist Delicious Cornbread

1 cup yellow corn meal

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 cup honey

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk - (I used organic nonfat milk)

1 cup softened butter

1 large egg lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix.  Mixture should be smooth.  Pour into 8 inch baking pan and bake approximately 25-30 minutes or until the tooth pick comes out clean.  Brush with butter while still hot.  Serve.