How can a weekend be so non-productive and productive at the same time?

If you looked up unproductive in the dictionary, it would show a picture of me from Saturday.  The most productive part was when I drove to Papa Johns to pick up a pizza.  But Sunday was a different story, kind of . . .

After being super lazy all morning, I finally cleaned my kitchen and did my laundry and went grocery shopping.  My grocery shopping trip included a trip to Target (where I spent too much money, sorry Husband), a trip to Fresh & Easy, and a trip to Albertson's.  Why?  I don't know.

Once I got home I decided to make one of my favorite recipes:  Stuffed Bell Peppers.  They're great because they refrigerate and heat up in the microwave super well - I like to make 4-6 at a time and then eat them for lunch all week.

The recipe is essentially this one from epicurious, but I added cumin to the ground turkey, because I'm wild like that.

Start by cutting off the top and pulling out the seeds.  I use yellow bell peppers because they're a little bit sweeter and I like sweet.

Then, you pop the peppers in boiling water for 5 minutes: 

Once the peppers are done in the boiling water, place them upside down on a plate with a paper towel so they can dry out a bit.

Next, you chop/dice/whatever one zucchini and half an onion.  Put those in a skillet with a little olive oil, garlic, and diced tomatoes.  **I cheat by buying big jars of minced garlic and using a can of diced tomatoes** 

Brown your ground turkey.  You can use ground beef if you want, but I use extra lean jennie-o ground turkey just to maximize the healthiness. 

Add the ground turkey to the vegetable mixture.  At this point, you also add some crumbled feta cheese and some cooked brown rice. 

For the rice, I cheat and use one packet of this magical (microwavable) stuff:

Finally, now that everything is cooked and combined, it is time to spoon the mixture into the peppers and top with more feta cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes and voila!!

I am *really* going to enjoy lunch this week.

Ingredients:

6 bell peppers

1/2 cup brown rice (uncooked) OR one packet of Trader Joe's frozen brown rice

1 zucchini

1/2 onion

2 cloves garlic OR a spoonful of minced garlic from the jar (I use this so much that I buy it at Costco)

1 tomato OR 1 can of diced tomatoes

several mint leaves (I never add this because I'm cheap and don't want to buy mint)

salt

pepper

olive oil

Directions:
1.  Cut tops off of peppers, remove seeds and membranes.
2.  Bring a large pot of covered water with a dash of salt to boil, add peppers, re-cover, and boil for 5 minutes.  Remove and drain upside down on paper towels.
3.  In a small pot, cook 1/2 cup rice in 1 1/4 cup water, set aside once rice has soaked up all water.  It is sooo much easier if you use the rice from Trader Joe's because it just requires that you put the packet of rice in the microwave for 3 minutes.  
4.  Finely chop garlic (unnecessary if you use the minced garlic in a jar), chop onion, zucchini, and tomato (also unnecessary if you use canned).  Heat about 1 tbsp of olive oil in large skillet.  On medium/low heat, add garlic to skillet first, then onion.  Cook while stirring for about 3 minutes.  Lower heat if the garlic starts to brown.  Then add zucchini, cook for another minute or so.  Add tomato last, continue stirring.
5.  Meanwhile, cook ground turkey in a separate skillet.  This is where I add the cumin.
6.  Stir in cooked rice and turkey to vegetable mixture.  Stir in a few tablespoons of feta cheese.  Chop up the several mint leaves and stir them in as well. (I don't use mint)  Add black pepper to taste.  Spoon mixture into peppers (fill them up!)
7.  Stand peppers upright in deep baking dish and sprinkle feta cheese on top.  Cover dish and place in preheated 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

I also bought this for Husband while I was out on my errands.  It's one of his favorites . . . this is mostly a test to see if he reads this whole post =)

Was your weekend productive?

What is your favorite recipe to make and refrigerate to eat later?

♥ Wishing You Merry Miles ♥