Skinny Stuffed Pepper Soup

It was a great night for soup tonight and I had a pretty decent selection of fresh ingredients. I've been in the mood for stuffed pepper soup lately and had everything I needed to make a rather tasty (and I'm guessing healthy) version.  It turned out wonderfully and I will definitely make it again. The organic grass-fed beef was really good and it was very lean. I liked the very lean part because there was no need to drain that pesky extra fat. The small amount of fat it did have just added to the flavor of the soup. There were no added oils for the recipe, so the fat content is pretty low even without draining off the tiny bit of fat still left. 

I chose to prepare the rice separately and add it right before serving. Some stuffed pepper soups I've tried, while still delicious, were missing a good part of the broth because the rice had taken it all in. Adding it right before serving allowed the soup the keep most of its flavorful broth.  The soup turned out really well and other than the broth and 2 kinds of spices (3 if you count one very small shake of salt near the end), all the ingredients were fresh!  No canned veggies here today, not that I'm against canned, I just enjoyed the fresh flavor of the soup. 

Ingredients:

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

1 green pepper, large dice

1 small onion, medium dice

~12 grape/yellow pear/cherry tomatoes, halved

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

32 oz. vegetable broth or stock

Ground cumin, to taste

Chili powder, to taste

Salt, optional

Prepared rice, about a cup

Brown beef in a medium sauce pan. When the beef is partially cooked through, add peppers, onion, and garlic. Mix it up and cook until meat is browned and peppers are getting tender. Add vegetable stock, cumin, chili powder, and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and let the flavors mingle for several minutes. When tomatoes are soft but not yet disintegrated, the soup is ready for serving. Add rice to the bowl and top with soup. Mix it up and serve immediately.  

Wine me Wednesday: Crabbie's Ginger Beer

It's been a while since I posted a Wine Me Wednesday entry. Granted, the return to WMW does not feature a wine, but it is still an alcoholic beverage and this is my blog so I'm going to run with it. Tonight's dinner (see earlier post) had a rather common theme of ginger. The tilapia had ginger, the Zoodles had ginger, so why not also try a ginger beer?  This was a great choice to go with the dish. Spectacular, actually... As long as you like ginger. If you don't, you might want to skip this one.

The bottle said to serve over ice with a slice of lime so I did. Brilliant! It was truly delicious. Barely had a traditional beer flavor and was quite refreshing. I am sure to enjoy the beverage again with other flavorful dishes. It would probably go really well with a nice stir fry. Only trouble is that I only got one bottle to try! I will definitely be putting it on the list for the weekend grocery trip!  If you joy ginger ale and malt beverages, give this one a try. It's pretty fantastic.

Everything seems to taste better when I'm using my Pints for Pets glass.  I love helping the rescued fur-babies and am also a fan of beer. This snazzy glass is a souvenir from the annual gathering of rescue and beer enthusiasts.  I'm soooo looking forward to the next one this year!

Zesty Tilapia and Zoodles with a Kick

Tilapia is a mild white fish that takes on new flavors like a champ. Tonight I was in the mood to use some of the yummy new ingredients I picked up over the weekend to try something new. As you've seen in a previous post, I have a newfound love for zoodles and usually pick some up when I go on my semi-monthly trip to Trader Joe's and Wegmans. For tonight's meal, I decided to try a quick "stir fry" with the zoodles to go with a new flavor for the tilapia. It turned out very well and paired wonderfully with Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer (more on that on tonight's long overdue Wine Me Wednesday).

With no further ado, here are some general guidelines for creating the zesty tilapia and zoodles with a kick:

Zesty Tilapia

Tilapia filet (or filets if you're having guests)

Fresh ginger, very tiny dice

Fresh garlic, very tiny dice

Rice vinegar, just a splash

Juice of 1 lime

Trader Joe's sweet chili sauce

Soy sauce

Sesame oil

Mix ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, lime juice, and soy sauce to combine. Then add chili sauce, followed by sesame oil. Rinse and place tilapia in a bag (or the bowl if it's large enough, it's your kitchen), pour the sauce over the fish and swish it around, making sure the fish is fully coated.  Let the fish and sauce mingle for a few minutes while the oven preheats to 400 degrees F.  Give the fish and sauce one last swish then pour it out onto a piece of foil with the edges folded up to prevent spilling. Fold the foil into a packet then bake for about 20 minutes or until the fish is cooked through. Serve with Zoodles w/a Kick.

Zoodles w/a Kick

Zoodles (roughly the size of spaghetti, I picked up a prepared package that also contained some carrot, onion, and sweet red peppers)

Small bunch of broccoli, lightly steamed

Fresh ginger, very tiny dice

Fresh garlic, very tiny dice

Trader Joe's sweet chili sauce

Soy sauce

Sesame oil

Extra virgin olive oil

Heat oils with ginger and garlic in a high-sided skillet or wok if you have one. When the garlic and ginger start to soften, add chili sauce and soy sauce, cook a minute or 2 to allow the flavors to mingle. Mix frequently to prevent burning.  If the peppers and onions are separate, try adding them to the pan a few minutes early as they tend to take longer to cook than the Zoodles. When there are a few minutes left to go, add the broccoli and Zoodles.  Mix to coat the veggies with the sauce and allow to heat through. Cook a tad longer if you want the Zoodles to be softer. Serve immediately. 

Leafy Pasta Salad

I picked up a whole rotisserie chicken at the grocery store on Sunday to eat throughout the week. On Monday, I made chicken fajita pasta using one of the chicken breasts. Honestly, that would have been a much tastier dish without the chicken. The rotisserie flavor wasn't the best pairing with the recipe and the texture just wasn't right for a fajita dish. However, it was pretty good despite the chicken, so with a different meat selection next time it will be much tastier.  Perhaps make fajitas one night then use the leftovers for the pasta the next day.  The vegetables turned out well, so the idea is there, I just need to work on the execution.

One perk of last night's near-failure at dinner is that I prepared the full pound of penne pasta to use for a few meals including today's successful salad lunch! There are still many noodles left, so I'm thinking soup is up next. Perhaps a nice vegetable noodle soup. Making the whole pound of penne this week just seemed to work for me. Usually I make enough for a single meal, but then I don't have any leftover for pasta salads. ***update: the pasta salad was so tasty I made a second batch so none was left for soup. #noregrets



Leafy Pasta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Spring mix
Cooked penne (or whatever pasta you have or are in the mood to eat)
Dried Cranberries (I used Trader Joe's Organic Dried Cranberries)
Candied pecans (or regular pecans, other nuts would also work)
Balsamic vinaigrette
Feta cheese
Black pepper

Toss the spring mix, pasta, cranberries and pecans with balsamic vinaigrette. Then add feta and toss again. Place in a salad bowl and add black pepper (to taste). Serve immediately.

Ground Lamb and Greens

While at the grocery store over the weekend, I found a package of organic ground lamb in the meat department and thought "This sounds delicious, i could really go for a gyro or Greek meatballs!"  So I put the package in my cart and continued shopping.  Well, as it turns out.  When I got home I realized I had forgotten to pick up feta cheese and since I only make one trip for groceries per week and didn't feel like going back out, I was left to come up with a different tasty use for the ground meat.

As luck would have it, I am rather happy to have forgotten the feta and deciding to ditch the original plan.  Why?  Let me tell you.  I looked into other uses for ground lamb and several different curry-inspired dishes came up.  While none of them looked particularly appealing as they were and I did not have most of the ingredients they called for, it was time to get creative.  Thus a rather easy, delicious dinner was born.

As you may have seen before, I enjoy making a quick curry-style dish out of chick peas (garbanzo beans), stewed tomatoes, and curry powder.  It cooks up fast and is rather tasty over rice.  It is also a nutrient-packed, vegetarian dish I make rather often so I already have my go-to jar of curry spice in the pantry.

I used the lamb mixture for 2 different meals.  The first meal consisted of a warmed piece of whole grain naan, tzatziki sauce, and home cooked greens (the Trader Joe's Spicy Spinach Blend worked wonderfully for this).  It kind of reminded me of a curry-inspired gyro... do those exist?  Well, if they didn't before they do now.

The second meal was even simpler.  I heated the curried lamb on the stove and popped the rice into the microwave (Trader Joe's Jasmine Rice- pre-prepared and in the freezer section).  Quite possibly the epitome of laziness, you take the bag out of the box, put it in the microwave on high for 3 minutes, and it's ready to serve... no additional pots to clean, no measuring, and no waiting for water to boil.  It is a wonderful product.  Then the rice went into the bowl followed by the leftover lamb mixture and was served with a side of grapes. 

So now for the recipes:

Curried Ground Lamb

1lb Ground Lamb (I used organic, but it's your choice)
1 medium onion, diced (minus a small amount for the greens)
~1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and minced (reserve a few pieces for the greens)

~1 tsp crushed garlic

1 pinch cinnamon

Curry powder (amount to taste)

1 can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed a bit

Brown lamb with onion. When lamb begins to cook, add ginger and garlic.  Continue cooking the mixture until lamb is browned. Drain fat. Add curry powder and cinnamon, let cook about a minute, stirring regularly.  When spices are evenly distributed, add can of tomatoes. Cover and cook until tomatoes are cooked through and liquid is mostly evaporated. 

Cooked Greens

Trader Joe's spicy spinach blend (or other greens meant for cooking)

Honey

Extra virgin olive oil

Rice vinegar

Minced ginger

Black pepper

Diced onion

Crushed garlic

Cook onion in olive oil until sweating.  Add vinegar, honey, pepper, garlic, and ginger. Mix and cook until onions are more wilted. Add greens toward end and cook until wilted. Mix well and serve immediately.