Turkey Stuffed Peppers

There's something so soothing and relaxing about turning up the music really loud and cooking in the kitchen. The chopping, mixing, and repetition of motion is like meditation for me. J works all day Saturdays so I brought him lunch at Costco and then spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen :) I love our life.

Recently, I've been fascinated with Women's Health Magazine (online at www.womenshealthmag.com) because they have great articles, extremely useful information, and a huge database of healthy recipes broken up into different dietary needs (such as low sodium, high protein, low fat, etc). That's where I found Saturday night's Crock Pot dinner - Stuffed Green Peppers!

According to Womens Health, the dietary benefits of this dish include: high fiber, high protein, low sodium, low calorie, gluten free, dairy free, amongst others!

CROCK POT STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS
Adapted from: http://recipes.womenshealthmag.com/Recipe/slow-cooker-stuffed-peppers.aspx



Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 cup uncooked grande couscous (delicious high protein, no fat alternative to rice)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 small jalapeno chile pepper, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
5 large green bell peppers
2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 (28 oz) can tomato puree, choose one that has less than 50mg sodium per 1/2 cup
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Directions:
Combine ground turkey, couscous, cilantro, onion, jalapeno pepper, garlic, salt, and black pepper into a large bowl.

Cut the tops off the bell peppers and scoop out the seeds.



Stuff each pepper with 1/5 of the turkey meat mixture. Replace the pepper tops and place them into the slow cooker.

Combine the broth, tomato puree, and oregano in a medium bowl.

Pour the liquid over the peppers in the slow cooker. Make sure the peppers are covered by the liquid.

Cook on HIGH for 4 hours. Garnish with parsley before serving.




TA-DA!

While we ate dinner, we planned our land excursions for our 7 day cruise in May - we're cruising on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas to Haiti, Jamaica, and Mexico! In celebration of booking our excursions (and because I was getting really excited about it) I made us Poor Girl's "Mai-Tai" (aka Mai Tais with fewer ingredients) - still YUMMY!


POOR GIRL'S MAI TAI

Ingredients:
Bacardi Light Rum
Pineapple Juice
Orange Juice

Directions:
Mix equal parts pineapple juice and orange juice.
Add in Bacardi Rum until it is at the desired strength.
Garnish with maraschino cherries and pineapple (optional).


And of course I also made dessert for us... I'll save that for the next post, this one is getting a little long ;)