Mini Stuffed Peppers

I came across a bag of these wonderful, colorful peppers while grocery shopping the other day and I knew I needed to make something out of them. 

I cooked up some jasmine rice and long grain rice in chicken broth instead of water, to add extra flavor. Then I added some tomato sauce and Italian seasoning and stuffed the peppers to the top. 

I stacked them tightly into a small casserole dish and topped with some shredded cheese. I baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. I only served a couple as a side to my dinner. The rest got gently separated a bit and I placed the whole dish in the freezer for a few hours until they froze slightly. Then I threw them all into a freezer bag and now I have a side that I can pull out anytime for dinner. 

Hindsight:

These would be great with some ground beef added to them. That's the way I usually make stuffed peppers but I wanted a side to go with anything since I was going to use the predominantly for freezing. Trader Joe's has a great blend that I love to use called Harvest Grains that would be wonderful for this as well. It's a hearty mix of couscous, quinoa, rice, buckwheat, and rice. I highly suggest trying that. 

Black Bean & Quinoa Veggie Burgers

I'm far from a vegetarian! But sometimes, a veggie fake out certainly can help your diet. I wanted to try something with a big more flavor and texture than my Meatless Sweet Potato Burgers. These fit the bill.

 

2 cups quinoa, cooked
2 shallots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp mixed up salt
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 large egg
2/3 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp Adobo seasoning
1 tsp cumin
1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup oats

 

Recipe Adapted from Prevention RD

Cook quinoa according to package directions. Once cooled, mix in a large bowl with all other ingredients. Form six equal sized large balls and press down on a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours. The longer they are refrigerated, the better they will stay together. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes on each side, flipping once during baking. Serve on a hamburger roll.

For a gluten free burger, use a rice or oat flour instead!

 

These burgers also freeze wonderfully! Just freeze them a bit on the baking sheet and then pop into freezer bags and store in the freezer until ready to cook or defrost.



Banana & Egg Flourless Pancakes

This is another recipe that I came across again and again, trending on Pinterest and it caught my attention. Who wouldn't want to try flourless diet pancakes? Well, as usual, I tweaked the recipes I found and came up with my own winning combination because I really didn't think that there was much pancake in the original "pancakes". I also like flavor, which I thought they lacked, even with adding some maple syrup.

 

2 bananas

3 eggs

1 Tbsp flour (if you want it gluten-free then don't use it, but I find that this tiny bit went a long way!)

1 Tsp cinnamon

1/2 Tsp vanilla extract

1 packet of sweetener (Splenda)

 

Recipe Adapted from Blogilates



Mash the bananas well using a blender or mixer and add eggs, whisking them. Slowly sprinkle in flour and add in the spices. I used a batter dispenser to form my pancakes and cooked them on a non-stick pan with a spray from my Misto. The batter is pretty runny! I did manage to cook two silver-dollar pancakes at once in a large pan, but I wouldn't go much more than that. They cook fast, about a minute or two only on each side.

Banana and egg are still the predominant flavors in these, not pancakes. In the future, I would forgo the maple syrup route and have them with butter, a small amount of peanut butter, some caramel, or a bananas foster topping that I make sometimes (will share at some point). All in all, it was a different thing to try but I wasn't totally sold on them. Give me my flour I suppose...



Meatless Sweet Potato Burgers

I didn't actually get to try these burgers myself, but I think the idea was good in theory. I think they need a lot of spicing up. I usually don't make anything bland at all. Next time I try these out, I'll have to see if I can jazz them up a bit. Feel free to try them yourself and send me any suggestions. They are also vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free!

 

1 can chickpeas

olive oil cooking spray

1/4 Tsp baking powder

1 sweet potato

2 Tbsp dill

1/2 small red onion, minced

1 Tsp salt

1/4 Tsp fresh ground pepper

1 1/2 Tsp garlic powder

 

Recipe Adapted from Self

Grate the sweet potato on a cheese grater.

Beat the chickpeas in a mixer until smooth. Add in onion and mix thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Finally, mix with the sweet potato.



Form mixture into "burgers". Spray a baking sheet with the nonstick spray and place "burgers" onto it. Spray the top of them with the spray as well. Cover tightly with foil and bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and spray them again. Cook an additional 20-25 minutes until the bottoms of the "burgers" turn golden brown. Flip them and spray again. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes.

 

I did make the cucumber mixture that was recommended with this recipe but I don't think it did anything for them. I'm trying to think of a good topping for them if you wanted to serve them on a bun as actual burgers. Maybe some french dressing or even ranch? I'm open to suggestions on this one!



Sweet Potato Patties

2 sweet potatoes

1 small onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, minced

2 beaten eggs

salt and pepper, to taste

1 Tbsp parsley

1/8 Tsp caraway seeds

1 Tsp garlic powder

Chop the sweet potatoes up finely in a food processor.

Mix with the remaining ingredients and form into patties. You should really use some pressure to get these together so they stay shaped. Forming the patties first and then refrigerating them for a little while on some parchment paper helps too.

Then heat up a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in a saute pan. Cook the patties until slightly browned on each side 3-4 minutes.



Low Fat Banana Cookies

I originally pinned this recipe because they were guilt free cookies. I ended up needing to bake for someone who was eating gluten free. You really can't get much simpler than these cookies though. And what better to do with bananas if they are starting to turn? I usually made some Low Fat Banana muffins with them but, I now switched to these. I now make these cookies EVERY time I have bananas that are starting to brown!

 

Recipe Adapted from The Burlap Bag

 

For each banana you have, mash them and add 1/2 cup of oats. I threw in some vanilla extract and cinnamon because I can never just leave a recipe alone. I'm sure I will be trying these with all kinds of mix-ins in the future! Each banana should yield about 2 cookies (apparently I made big ones), and it's so easy to keep track of what you are eating if you use an app like I do.

 

I added chocolate chips to them. I like to put them on top of cookies too because it looks nicer and you can count them out!



Lay your cookies out on a well greased cookie sheet! Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. When they come out of the oven, you have to let them cool for a few minutes so they will stay together. Don't leave them too long though, because they can be hard to get off the pan (maybe 5-10 minutes). Next time, I think I will try parchment paper and see if that makes it easier.

 

Hindsight: When I first started making these cookies, I used to puree the banana to an almost liquid. I have since figured out that the chunkier you leave the bananas, the easier the cookies come off the pan and the better they stay together!