Stuffed Pepper Boats

Stuffed Pepper Boats

I was inspired by a mini-stuffed pepper dish I saw in another blog, but they never post recipes. I think they added seitan to theirs, but I'm not a huge fan of meat subs so I just made a quick bean and rice dish, spooned it into some red bell pepper sections, and voila! I'm going to be moving soon so I've had finger-foods on the brain for the many dinner parties I plan on having ;)

what you need:
3 large bell peppers (any color; red is my fave!)
1 can organic black beans, drained
1 1/2 C organic brown rice
1/4 C panko bread crumbs
1/2 large white onion, diced
2 green onions/scallions (white & green part) for garnish
seasonings: creole (of course), garlic powder, fresh cracked black pepper

I buy frozen organic brown rice from whole foods. it comes in a bag and is fully cooked, you just microwave it for 2 minutes. I can't cook dry rice to save my life, so this is my go-to product!

* preheat oven to 350 degrees *

1. dice onion and saute in 2 tsp of olive oil (in a medium size saucepan). in the meantime, cut the bell peppers into sections that can be filled/piled with mixture.
2. once transluscent, add drained black beans and cooked brown rice. add about 1/4cup of water.
3. add spices, stirring occasionally until hot.
4. grease a cookie sheet and place bell pepper sections skin-side down in the oven (I bought organic olive oil cooking spray, and this is what I used to coat the cookie sheet!). let them roast for about 10 minutes so that they soften.
5. remove peppers from oven, let cool, and stuff with bean and rice mixture. place them back on the cookie sheet, cover in aluminum foil, and bake in the oven for another 5 minutes.
6. in the meantime, toast panko bread crumbs in a non-stick skillet until golden (I also added a few pinches of garlic powder).
7. remove peppers from oven, top with toasted bread crumbs and scallions!

I topped mine with a little organic salsa before I ate them. so so so good!!
another note- I over-seasoned my bean and rice dish and it was a tad too salty for my taste, so I added a packet of Stevia in the Raw and it was all better again :)

not a fan of

when Maoz doesn't label their sauces, and all of them are white, and I accidentally cover my falafel with some mayonnaise sauce. luckily, I realized my mistake before consuming the falafel and they gave me a new one (and I pawned the mayonnaise covered one off to the guy in line next to me, because I didn't want it to go to waste). ughhhhh.

I don't have anything too interesting to report these days, as I've been extremely hard at work and attending summer classes! this is what I've been eating lately:


I've been trying to stick to a diet lately that will hopefully result in the loss of 10 pounds (fingers crossed!) so all last week I brought salads to work for lunch. I tried to keep the salads as healthy as possible, combining a few of my favorite veggies (romaine, tomatoes, red onion, avocado, red bell pepper, and cucumber) as well as a handful of chickpeas, tossed in a little bit of organic roasted garlic balsamic vinaigrette.


I haven't figured out what this vegetable is actually called, but I refer to it as "chinese cabbage". I buy it from the farmer's market on the corner, and saute it in a little bit of olive oil mixed with a little sesame oil, and lots of fresh chopped garlic. this makes a really quick and easy side dish! (this time I also added a little organic brown rice)





this was another quick and easy, protein-packed meal. I am IN LOVE with trader joe's frozen fire roasted peppers and onions. I usually buy the regular frozen bell peppers (much, much cheaper than fresh and last forever!!), but I discovered these the other day and am hooked!! I sauteed the frozen peppers and onion mixture in a little olive oil, added black beans and cooked organic brown rice, and seasoned it with garlic powder, fresh ground black pepper, and a little creole seasoning (that I add to pretty much everything). I piled this onto an organic spinach tortilla, topped it with another tortilla and baked it for about 5 minutes on 350. the tortilla came out nice and crisp, and I served it with fresh avocado and salsa :)

in OTHER news, I went to the P.O.P.E. the other day with a couple of vegan friends. I'd never had any food there (it's a bar, if you didn't know) so we all ordered the "seitan fingers with fries". while the seitan fingers were edible, they were nothing to rave about. basically, they used store-bought seitain and coated it in what tasted/felt like plain cornmeal, deep fried it, and served it on a bed of super greasy french fries (too greasy, in my opinion). they came with a small side of dipping sauce, which is what allowed them to pass for food. I know this isn't a vegan bar/restaurant but it's dishes like these that give vegan food a bad name :(