Summer Stuffed Peppers (with no rice)

This is the second time I've made these stuffed peppers.  I started thinking about stuffed peppers after having a chili relleno at a Mexican restaurant.  Peppers are good, stuffing is good, but baked stuffed peppers are bad.  So I searched AllRecipes.com, and found a recipe to try.  The first time was closer to the original--I used ground beef, a can of tomatoes, and brown rice (instead of white), but the rice didn't cook all the way, so I tried breadcrumbs this time.  I plan to re-visit the brown rice idea at some point.

• 6 medium yellow, orange, green, or sweet red peppers
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1  pound lean ground turkey
• 4 (decent sized) cloves garlic, minced (or more, if they are small)
• 1 medium onion, minced
• handful of Italian seasoning
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cabbage
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 medium (or 2 small) carrot, shredded
• 8 oz sliced mushrooms
• 1/4 cup "Italian" breadcrumbs
• additional fresh herbs, to taste (I used green onion, rosemary, oregano, sage, and parsley, and basil for garnish)
• salt and pepper to taste (I used about a teaspoon of salt, I think)

1.   Cut the tops off each pepper and reserve. Cook peppers in boiling water until crisp-tender, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from water and rinse with cold water.

2.   Remove stems from pepper tops and chop.

3.   In a large skillet heat olive oil, and start browning ground  turkey. 

4.   Add garlic, onion and spices, and finish browning the meat.  

5.   Add the other veggies (including reserved pepper). Saute until vegetables are nearly tender. 

6.   Add breadcrumbs and herbs that can take more cooking (such as rosemary, oregano, and sage) when the mushrooms throw off their liquid. 

7.   Reduce heat to low. Cook until the vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.  Stir in more tender herbs just before removing from heat (such as parsley, basil, and green onion) or use them as garnish.

8.   Stuff hot meat mixture into peppers. Serve immediately, with a hard cheese to grate over them.  (They are also fine as left-overs.)

 

Kielbasa and Vegetables

I hadn't thawed anything to cook today, and needed to make something fast and easy, if I was going to make anything at all in time for lunch.  Kielbasa thaws really fast, and it's pre-cooked, so it seemed like a good idea.
My mom always cooked kielbasa with carrots and potatoes, and some water so it would all steam together. I don't have any potatoes at the moment, and I'm trying to cut back on starches in every-day meals... and I had some cauliflower that REALLY needed to be used up...
This is what I came up with.

Chop up an onion.  Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a fry pan.

Start sauteing (on high or medium-high, depending on your stove--I wanted it to sound "sizzilly") the onion as you chop up three carrots.  Add the carrots.

Continue to saute as you chop up some cauliflower.  (I used up the end of a head--maybe a couple of cups.)  I wasn't exactly sauteing--more like stirring occasionally.  But I liked how the onions and cauliflower started to caramelize on the sides.

Continue to saute as you halve/quarter 8 oz of mushrooms.

Continue to saute as you slice a 13 oz kielbasa (this one was turkey).

Add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt (mine is kosher salt) and some black pepper. (I measured the salt after I poured it into my hand--it was just under 1/2 teaspoon.  I was curious.)

    

Smash up 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seed with a mortar and pestle and add that.  (If you have ground mustard powder on hand, I'm sure that would be just about the same.)

  

The mushrooms throw off quite a bit of liquid.  Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, probably reducing the heat to medium, until the kielbasa is warm and the vegetables are cooked as much as you like them.

We decided that it was very good.  It's different from just carrots and potatoes, but I might actually prefer this!

Sundried Tomato and Pesto Chicken

Toast in a dutch oven (or a huge frying pan) and set aside: 1/4 cup pine nuts
Mince and set aside: 4-6 cloves of garlic (I'm counting it as 4, because some were small, but it was technically 6)

Cut into strips/bites: 4 chicken breast halves
Heat in the dutch oven: about 2 tablespoons olive oil
Cook the chicken and garlic in the olive oil, until the chicken seems cooked through.

Add: a handful of dry basil

• about a cup of sundried tomatoes (from a jar, soaked in olive oil-not dry ones)
• 1 cup chicken broth (reserve a few tablespoons)
• nearly 7 oz of prepared pesto
• a little salt (since I used home-made chicken broth)
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Mix the reserved chicken broth with: 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Add to the chicken, and cook until thickened.

Shortly before serving, add: 3/4 cup (or so) crumbled feta

Serve with pasta, and grated hard cheese (such as Parmesan, Assiago, or Pecorino)

Notes: You could toast the pine nuts in the oven, but that would make another dish.  I also prefer to cut/mince everything else before I cup up meat, so I don't have to worry about the meat juice getting where it shouldn't be.

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower

So I saw this recipe on Pinterest for The Best Broccoli of Your Life, and I wanted to try it.
I didn't have enough broccoli, so I used some cauliflower as well.
(N.B. We just got back from about a week in Wisconsin, so my produce isn't as pretty as it was when I bought it, and I had to trim it more extensively than usual.)

Preheat the oven to 425F.
Cover a cookie sheet with foil.
Cut broccoli and cauliflower into chunks onto the foil.  (I use a lot of the stems, as well as the florets.)  I used two smallish bunches of broccoli, and part of a head of cauliflower.

Spray with olive oil, toss, and repeat twice.
Sprinkle with kosher salt, and grind pepper on top.  Toss in several cloves of pealed garlic.

Roast for 20-25 minutes, until it starts to look browned around the edges.  (It would be a good idea to stir it around during cooking, to let other edges brown, but I didn't do this, because I was busy.)
Zest a lemon over the vegetables, squeeze half of the lemon over them, add a few tablespoons of toasted pine nuts, spray with olive oil again, and grate some hard cheese over the top (I had Assiago on hand, but pecorino or parmigiana would work equally well).  Toss and serve.