Grilled Italian Stuffed Peppers | Dinner

I've never been a big fan of green peppers until a couple of years ago. I really enjoy them now and love the smell of them cooked. I normally stuff bell peppers upright and cook them in the oven but since it's summer most I try to cook everything on the grill instead of the oven. My small kitchen can't handle the heat! 

I split these in half and laid them on their sides on the grill instead of upright mainly because I wanted a charred skin on the bell peppers. The end result was delicious.

Grilled Italian Stuffed Peppers

Recipe by: Simply Fit Mama

• 4 green peppers
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 8 oz. package of mushrooms, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1lb ground beef
• 3/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes--if you want a little kick
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• Fresh mozzarella slices--I did not have any and just used a cheese blend but mozzarella slice on top would be superb!

Heat a pan on the stove to a medium heat. Add 1 Tbsp of the oil once the pan is hot. Now add the onions and let them cook until translucent and soft, a couple of minutes. Add the chopped mushrooms to the onions and let them cook until they reduce in size, about 4 minutes. Now you can add the garlic let it cook for another minute with the veggie mixture. Pull the pan off the heat and transfer the veggie mixture to a bowl. 

Place the pan back onto the stove and let it heat up again. Add the rest of the oil and brown the ground beef. While the beef is cooking start prepping your green peppers. Cut them in half. Then you need to remove the stem, seeds and ribs of the pepper. When you are finished with that lightly salt and pepper the insides of the peppers. Your ground beef should be almost done.

Heat your grill to a medium heat. Once the ground beef is cooked add the veggie mix back and add all of the seasonings and tomato sauce, mix well. Also make sure to salt and pepper to taste. 

Stuff each pepper accordingly with the meat. I make sure to under stuff the kids peppers because they don't eat as much as we do and the extra goes to waste. Once the peppers are stuffed add your desired cheese on top ( I hope you pick fresh mozzarella!) then take them to the grill. 

Now that the grill is nice and hot turn the heat all the way to low. Place the peppers on the top rack, close and come back in 8-10 minutes to pull them off the grill. If you don't have a top rack turn the heat off on one side of your grill and put the peppers on the unheated side but keep the heat on the other side closer to medium.

Another easy way to enjoy these peppers is to use leftover spaghetti with meat sauce instead of having more leftover spaghetti.

Enjoy!

The Real Food Diet Cookbook review and GIVEAWAY

I'm not a big fan of diet books in general and when I was asked to review this new "diet" book I was hesitant. I took a look at Dr. Axe's website and I was intrigued and my hesitation dissolved. I really found his website overflowing with sound health and nutritional advice. This book is less of a diet book and more of a nourishing your health through food book. The last week and a half I have been trying new recipes from this book.

The beginning of the cookbook is filled with great nutritional advice. Dr. Axe breaks down nutrition into easy to digest information:

• real vs. fake food
• explanation of nutrient density
• the real food pyramid vs. the standard food pyramid
• five best real foods 
• five worst fake foods
• a great explanation of sugars, fats and oils
• healthiest milk and dairy
• cooking tips
• label reading
• cooking equipment
• glycemic load --eat this not that section is good

My favorite statement in the whole book is this:

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

• Stop counting calories.
• Stop counting fat.
• Stop counting carbs.
• Stop measuring every last portion on your mini-scale.
• Start focusing on eating quality food.

If you are just starting out on your real food / whole food journey then this would be a good book to get you started, mainly because of the first part of the book. 

If you have been eating with a real food / whole food concept for a while then some of this information will be stuff you already know.

Another nice feature of this cookbook is that the majority of the recipes had color pictures to accompany them. I liked that. 

Here are a few of the recipes I have tried:

Chai

This was a nice warm fall drink that uses almond milk. I enjoyed it and my kids did too. I plan to give this  to them  after they come in from playing in the chilly fall weather.

Almond Berry Cereal

I had high hopes for this cereal because it looked soo good but I didn't really like it. It had a paste like consistency  which was not very appealing. I still ate about half of it because I was hungry and didn't want to waste the food,  it was a very filling breakfast. I loved the coconut milk which I have never had before. The coconut milk was nice and creamy. Because of this recipe I plan on trying coconut milk in other ways.

Spinach Salad with Spiced Nuts

I actually made this salad for Thanksgiving. It was delicious and wonderful combination of flavors.  Since I had all the ingredients on hand I ended up making it a couple time during the weekend. It was good!

This morning I threw all the ingredients in the crock pot for the Crockpot Turkey Stew from  Dr. Axe's cookbook. I have just a little bit of turkey leftover so I thought I would give this recipe a try. 

Crockpot Turkey Stew

recipe from: The real food diet cookbook by Dr. Josh Axe

*recipe provided with permission from author.

2 lbs. boneless, skinless turkey (breast thighs, legs, etc.)

1 med. leek, sliced

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 tsp. thyme leaves

1 tsp. oregano leaves

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 c. winter squash, peeled and cubed

1 med. carrot, chopped

1 cinnamon stick

1 16 oz. can organic tomatoes

1 32 oz carton of chicken/turkey/veggie broth or water

• Place turkey, leeks, celery and spices into crock pot. Turn on high and saute until leeks become translucent. (I did this in a skillet on the stove)
• Add squash, carrots, cinnamon stick, tomatoes, water or stock and simmer covered for 2-3 hours on medium or 6-8 hours on low.
• Remove cinnamon stick just prior to serving.

The turkey stew was yummy. The winter squash was a nice addition and the cinnamon stick made the house and stew smell delicious. The cinnamon didn't read sweet it actually added a little kick. The kiddos loved it probably because it smelled delicious. My husband did not like it but I thought it was good.

Giveaway!

As I mentioned in the title this is also a giveaway. When they sent me this book to review they were kind enough to send me one for my readers (that's you!). To enter the giveaway here's what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

2. Twitter about this giveaway.

 (come back and leave a comment re: tweets). 

3. Post a comment on Facebook about this giveaway. 

(come back and leave another comment re: facebook)

So that is three ways to enter. The giveaway is open until midnight tomorrow,  December 2nd. The winner will be chosen by random.org. I will announce the winner on Friday morning, December 3rd.

Spaghetti Squash Marinara with Italian Sausage | Salad | Fresh Bread

This dinner was a hit at our house. I have made spaghetti squash once or twice but for some reason never made it again. Weird, right? It's good and easy to make and my mind was on overdrive thinking of all the things I could make with spaghetti squash. I used a recipe from Whole Foods "the whole deal" news letter; they also have it posted on their website: here.

Spaghetti Squash Marinara with Italian Sausage

recipe by: Whole Foods Market

adapted by: Simply Fit Mama

• 1 (3 1/2 lb.) spaghetti squash, halved and seeded
• 2 links fresh Italian pork sausage, removed from casings--You could easily leave this out and make it vegetarian/vegan.
• 1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup fresh mushrooms, chopped--I didn't have any on hand but next time I make it I will add the mushrooms.
• 1 jar prepared pasta sauce--I used 365 organic three cheese marinara
• Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375°F. Arrange squash in dish, cut sides down. Pour 1/2 cup water into the dish and bake until just tender, 30 to 35 minutes. Rake with a fork to remove flesh in strands. --When you pull this out of the oven leave it cut side down until you're ready to serve, then rake with fork to make the strands,  this will ensure that the squash stays warm.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium heat and cook sausage, breaking into smaller pieces, until almost done, about 5 minutes. Add onion and cook until soft. Next add mushrooms and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. Add garlic cook for a minute then add pasta sauce and simmer 2 to 3 minutes. Keep warm.

Salad

I tossed together some organic mixed baby greens with Trader Joe's Caesar dressing, a squeeze of half a fresh lemon, 1 tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese and cracked pepper.

Fresh Bread

I made the whole grain artisan free-form loaf from this book. It was delicious!