The Food Brie Cooked and Baked

Recipe source: See post #48

Well, it finally happened. I duplicated a recipe I already made this year.

I hadn’t been to the grocery store. I had some chicken in the freezer, tortillas and sour cream in the refrigerator and a couple of late-season green peppers BP pulled from the garden sitting on the counter.

I knew I could throw this meal together in a matter of minutes, and it was something we would actually enjoy eating!

Recipe source: I have no idea

Ever since finding this recipe, I have never made traditional stuffed green peppers with rice. I don’t even remember where I got the recipe from, but it is the absolute best stuffed green pepper recipe I’ve ever tried. BP loves it, too.

Instead of rice, the peppers are filled with a mixture of ground beef, sausage, tomatoes, feta, Parmesan, mozzarella and some spices. Delicious.

I halve my peppers and lay them in a 9×13 dish, rather than actually trying to stuff them, which is why you can hardly see any of the green pepper in the photo. It’s buried.

beef and feta stuffed green peppers

Recipe

1 tbsp. butter

4 green peppers

1-1/2 lbs. ground sirloin (I use ground chuck usually.)

1/2 lbs. ground sausage (hot or mild)

1 small white onion, diced

oregano, seasoned pepper and fennel seed (optional) to taste

6 Roma tomatoes, sliced

2 tsp. crushed garlic or 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

6 oz. fresh feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 c. grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray casserole dish with non-stick spray. Cook ground sirloin and sausage at low-medium heat, stirring often. Once meat is cooked through, drain thoroughly. Add all butter, onions, garlic, oregano, seasoned pepper, fennel seed and 3/4 of the tomatoes. Simmer over low heat, approx. 20 minutes.

Cut off tops of peppers, remove inner seeds and membranes. Wash and dry. Fill peppers with meat mixture, alternating with a layer of feta and Parmesan cheeses. Place peppers into a casserole dish, side by side, adding remaining tomatoes to the dish (around and under the peppers so they cook up and into the peppers).

Add remaining mixture around the peppers and sprinkle all remaining feta and Parmesan cheeses on top. Add shredded mozzarella cheese.

Bake at 350 for approx. 30 minutes, or until browned and bubbly.

Recipe source: Allrecipes.com

If you have an abundance of summer garden produce at your disposal, then you really need to make this dish.

I stumbled upon this recipe a few years ago, and I’ve made it every summer since. It’s perfect for when you have a lot of vegetables ready to go in your garden. I generally follow the recipe almost exactly, but you could substitute in whatever vegetables are ripe in your yard.

This time, I found everything I needed in our garden except for the yellow squash, so I doubled the zucchini instead.

Also, the recipe calls for farfalle pasta, but I didn’t have any, so I used a box of rotini I had on the shelf.

pasta primavera with Italian turkey sausage

Recipe source: Simple & Delicious, June/July 2010

Ah, Italian. I love it.

This was very good. BP and I both enjoyed this one. It’s easy to throw together, and you can use fresh vegetables from your garden.

sausage & penne marinara

Recipe

2-1/2 c. uncooked penne pasta (I used a whole regular size box.)

1 lb. Italian sausage links, cut into 1-in. pieces (I used bulk sausage instead of links.)

1 lg. onion, halved and sliced

1 medium green pepper, sliced

1 tbsp. canola oil (I used olive oil.)

1 can (14.5 oz.) stewed tomatoes, cut up

1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook the sausage, onion and green pepper in oil over medium heat until the sausage is no longer pink and vegetables are tender. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and seasonings; heat through.

Drain pasta; toss with tomato mixture. Sprinkle with cheese.

Recipe source: Allrecipes.com

Lately, I’ve had a hankerin’ for Mexican food, and I love me a quesadilla.

These were quick to put together and very fresh tasting with all the fresh veggies that went into them.

Instead of frying mine in a vat of oil, however, like the recipe suggests, I used a nonstick skillet and heated my quesadilla on both sides until the cheese was melted and the tortillas were crisp.

I cut my quesadilla into quarters and ate it with salsa. Yum!

bean quesadilla

Recipe source: Allrecipes.com

Easy, pretty and company-worthy, seriously.

I added green and red peppers to my skewers, and next time, I also will add pineapple chunks.

BP really liked these, too!

chili-lime chicken kabobs

Recipes source: The Noshery

Delicious! Goodbye forever, Manwich.

These joes were fresh, with the use of fresh cut veggies, and spicy. If you’re not a fan of spicy food, I’d recommend you cut out the cayenne pepper altogether. There’s some definite heat to these joeys.

These are going straight into my “make again” file.

turkey sloppy joes

Recipe source: Allrecipes.com

I especially like these fajitas because I can prepare the entire meal early in the day, and when I’m ready to eat later, all I need to do is throw it in the skillet to cook.

tangy chicken fajitas

Recipe source: Simple & Delicious, March/April 2010

This was worth the time and effort.

It took me about an hour to put this together, but I ended up with two 9×13 pans of a delicious, hearty meal – one of which we ate right away and the other is in the freezer for next month.

Chock full of veggies, this was a meal I will make again. One 9×13 casserole fed me, BP, Dad and Little Brother, plus BP and I had enough leftover for supper the next night.

The recipe called for fully cooked Italian sausage links, but the deli I go to was out of them, so I bought bulk sausage instead and cooked it before putting it in the dish.

chicken and sausage manicotti

Recipe source: Simple & Delicious, January/February 2010

Italian sausage, kielbasa, tomatoes, basil, oregano, pasta – what’s not to love? This was an easy, tasty dish on a cold winter night.

hearty sausage stew