Dinner Awesomeness - Stuffed Bell Pepper Edition

I have recently discovered the magicality(what?) of the crock pot.  I mean, who really feels like cooking a fresh, delicious, hopefully healthy meal after being at work for nine hours? Not me, that's for sure.  Enter the crock pot. Or slow cooker if you prefer. I'm gonna go with crock pot.  So, I've been cruising the internet for recipes for this magical invention that has been around forever (actually since the 70's, but that's neither here nor there), and I've had a little trouble finding recipes that aren't soup, pot roast, or totally weird stuff that I wouldn't eat. Not that I don't like soup and pot roast, but I've already made those things in the crock pot, and I was looking for a little something more.  Enter this cookbook....

I'm not sure what that is in the blue bowl. Tooth soup? Gross.

  I scored this gem from Half Priced Books and it is FULL of recipes that I would never have thought you could make in a crock pot.  Awesome! I've already made a turkey meatloaf that turned out pretty good.  I still prefer the beef version, even though ground turkey is 130% better for you (real statistic... probably).  Next on my slow cooking menu is chicken jambalaya, enchiladas, and Mexican cornbread (not all at once). I'll let you know how those turn out. Right now though, let's focus on the stuffed bell peppers I mentioned in the title and never brought up again. I actually prepped everything the night before I did the actual slow cooking part. I don't get up early enough to slice and dice and mix raw meat together. Bleh.

The prep on this wasn't too bad.  You just have to have the right tools.  By that, I mean some tunes playing on your Pandora, or iPod, or whatever you use to jam, and also a nice glass of wine.  Or beer. Or vodka. Whatever you prefer.  This is your crock pot party!  Here's what mine looked like...

I like a good Cabernet Sauvignon every now and then. That's the crock pot trying to photo bomb back there. Not shown - Pandora jamming tunes in the background.

Now on to the actual food prep! The recipe calls for 8 small peppers. My grocery store did not have 8 small peppers, so I just got 6 big peppers and decided to make it work.  Wash up your peppers and get them all nice and shiny, like so...

So shiny and beautiful!

Also, try and ignore the fact that the lighting in my kitchen leaves MUCH to be desired. It's like 1973 in there, honestly.  So, now you have your clean and shiny peppers and you need to cut their heads off and take out their insides.  Off with their heads! 

Poor, sad, headless peppers

Now we have to chop up 1/4 cup of onions.  I went with a medium yellow onion here, just to switch it up a bit.  I only chopped up half of the onion and saved the rest for some other cooking adventure.  My chopping skills are ALMOST as bad a my photography skills, so it took a while to get to this point...

There was definitely crying involved.

Once you finish up your onion cry-fest, you are ready to mix up your ingredients in a gigantic bowl and prepare to stuff them in those poor headless peppers.  I'll list all of the ingredients at the end with the full recipe, but here is what they looked like...

You can use whatever brand you like - unless Jennie-O or anyone else wants to pay me for endorsements. In that case, you should definitely use these brands!

So, now we have all of our necessary ingredients.  We are going to just throw them in that big red bowl back there and mix them up really well.  I used a long wooden spoon because mixing raw meat with my hands grosses me out.  I had to do it for the meatloaf and it was NOT pretty.  Blurg.

Mix me up good, now!

So, this recipe calls for a can of tomato sauce.  I substituted a cup of salsa instead.  I like a little zest in my life!  Once you get everything all nice and mixed up, you need to stuff those peppers.  Here is where it gets tricky.  The recipe says to only fill them 2/3 of the way full.  It also called for 8 smalls.  I filled my 6 large to the max, and still had leftover stuffing.  I did something awesome with the leftovers, which I will also tell you about, but here are my 6 large peppers stuffed to the max...

Stuffed!

At this point, we are ready to get crock-pottin'! Me, I threw them in some tupperware and stuck it in the fridge and went to bed.  Hooray! Once I woke up though, it was crock pot time, straight away!  Now all we have to do is pour 3 tablespoons of water into the bottom of the crock pot, place the peppers inside the crock pot, and squirt some ketchup on top of those little guys. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons, but I just squirted away until the tops were satisfactorily covered.  

Now, as I mentioned previously, I got up early and did this part.  I put the peppers in the crock pot, put the lid on and turned it on low, and headed on my merry way to work.  I did NOT remember to take a picture of those guys in the crock pot.  Also, I only got a picture of one after it was done. We had some friends over for dinner and they arrived right as I was finishing up fixing our plates. So, we ate and I had this one little guy left over to take a picture of. Sorry!

I was the only one left! And I tasted better than I look!

As far as the bell peppers go, they were a hit.  Everyone liked them and I consider the making of the stuffed bell pepper recipe a success!  The proportions in the recipe however, not such a success, but that's ok.  With all of the leftover stuffing I had I was able to make some awesome little meatballs that I served on the side.  I made a super secret sauce to go on them and they turned out to be my favorite part of the meal.  We also had some delicious brown rice, since there is not any rice in the stuffing.  Weird, right?  Anyway, here are those little meatballs, pre-cooking...

Just added some panko breadcrumbs and an egg to make these little guys!

So, there it is. My first recipe post.  I'll try and do a better job with taking a picture of each step next time, you guys.  Be sure to let me know if you make this, and how grateful you are that I shared this information with you.  Heh heh.  Here is the recipe!

STUFFED BELL PEPPERS

• 8 small green peppers, tops removed and seeded
• 10-oz. pkg. frozen corn
• 3/4 lb. 99% fat free ground turkey
• 3/4 lb. extra lean ground beef
• 8-oz. can low-sodium tomato sauce (1 cup salsa if you're zesty)
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 cup shredded low-fat American cheese (I used cheddar)
• 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 3 tbsp. water
• 2 tbsp. ketchup (you know how I feel about this)

1. Wash peppers and drain well. Combine all ingredients except water and ketchup in mixing bowl. Stir well.
2. Stuff peppers 2/3 full.  (or to the max. whatever works)
3. Pour water in slow cooker. Arrange peppers on top. 
4. Pour ketchup over peppers
5. Cover. Cook on high 3-4 hours or on low 7-9 hours. 
6. Enjoy! 

Let's Talk About Swappin'!

Image courtesy of swap-bot.com

A few years ago I somehow stumbled upon swap-bot.com while I was cruising around the blogosphere.  I'm pretty sure I was checking out a crafty blog and the blogger mentioned swapping.  I had never even heard of swapping before then, but I was intrigued.  The mystery blogger mentioned that if you were crafty, and you liked getting mail (actual, postal service delivered mail), then you should check out swap-bot.com .  Honestly, who doesn't love getting mail that isn't of the bill variety?  Every time I open the mailbox and see my name and address handwritten on an envelope, I get a little excited.  Is it a card? A wedding invitation? Pictures of my nieces or nephews or the adorable children of friends? So many possibilities!! But, I digress.  Back to swapping, and more specifically, swap-bot.

This a free, crafty community where, essentially, all you have to do is sign up for an account, find swaps that you are interested in, sign up for the swap, and then send off the item(s) to another person that has signed up for the swap.  As is the nature of the word "swap", you then receive an item from another swap participant.  This is the WAY over-simplified version, of course, but you get the point... right?  For those of you worried about privacy issues regarding giving out your info to strangers on the web, the creators of the site always encourage that you use a p.o. box for swapping and they do have measures in place to always try to ensure the safety and confidentiality of their members information.

There are SO MANY different types of things that people are swapping on this website.  I had never even heard of most of the things that these crafty ladies (there are some men, but I have mostly encountered ladies there) are making and sending to one another.  By nature, I am a researcher.  I like to know the in's & out's of a situation before I get involved.  I'm totally the person that reads a website's return policy before I buy anything and I ALWAYS read instructions for use, assembly, etc.  What can I say, I'm just not very impulsive, ok? That being said, the Glossary of Terms, FAQ's, and New User Info sections on this site are totally ACE.  Before I ever even signed up for an account, I felt pretty confident that I had a firm grasp on what was going on with "the swapping".  Kudos to the site creators (Rachel and Travis) for being thorough and informative with explaining the process, and also being available to handle any administrative issues that may pop up. 

Now back to what these ladies are swapping.  There is a little something for everyone, even if you aren't all that "crafty".  People swap postcards, handmade greeting cards, ATC's (basically awesome little miniature works of art), handmade envelopes (my personal fave), bookmarks, tea, altered things, recycled things, candy, thrift store finds, and the list goes on and on and on.  I have tried all sorts of new crafty projects since I signed up.  I have also received some exceptionally creative and super-cool items in my mailbox over the past few years.  Most of the time, they arrive in pretty packages with WAY more than just a handwritten address on the front of the envelope.  I'm talking mail art, people.  Love it.

Enough talking! Here are a few of the awesome things that I have received....

Here we have some handmade nesting boxes - made from recycled materials. The picture really does not do any justice to how beautifully detailed these are!

Made by swap-bot user @Bramblebelle

 Next up, a quirky little birdy - also made from recycled materials.  Crafty, I tell ya!

Made by @wolfeagle

This awesome zombie pin.  I have a love for all things zombie, but that could (and probably will be) a post all in itself.

I cannot find the name of the awesome gal that sent this to me.  If it's you, leave a comment and I'll give you cred!

And last, but certainly not least, a gorgeous set of handmade cards featuring images of barn owls from a wall calendar.  Can't wait to send some of these out!

Made by @madcrazy

These are only a few of the things that were within reach from my desk.  There is WAY more awesome where that came from!  So, if this sounds like something you may be interested in doing, I encourage you to check it out. It's fun, it gives me a reason to be crafty, and I also get to enjoy other people's craftiness!  Win, Win, and Win!

March Is Donezo!

Amazing art by Jolie Daniels.

 Another month of 2012 - already over!  This year is flying by and it seriously just goes faster the older I get.  Has anyone else noticed this?  Quite frankly, it freaks me out a bit.  My goal in April is to actually try and slow down and enjoy things a bit more.  It seems like every week I am just waiting for Monday - Thursday to hurry up and be over already so I can enjoy the weekend.  While I'm sure that there will be days that I still want to rush through, I'm going to focus on making each day as awesome as possible.

On that note, let's take a look back at March and gaze fondly on the things that were.....

1. My BFF had her beautiful baby girl on March 5th, 2012.  You can read her whole incredible story HERE.  We were able to go and see her a week after she was born and, of course, I fell in love right away. Jolie and her hubs are pretty much kicking butt at the whole "new parent" thing and I see wonderful things in that little lady's future! So now, there is another little Pisces in the world for me to daydream with. Hooray for other people having cute babies for me to love and cuddle and buy sweet little baby clothes for!
2. My birthday happened! I turned 31 this year and it was not nearly as traumatic as I thought it would be.  My friends at work decked out my cubicle on Friday and got me all sorts of cards and gifts and a cake. It was awesome!  I felt very loved and it was a perfect way to start my birthday weekend.  After work on Friday, we went over to my mother-in-laws house in the hill country and had an awesome and super relaxing weekend.  It mega-rained the entire way there and also the whole day on Saturday.  Luckily, rain is kind of my thing and VERY conducive to wine drinking, yummy food eating, and movie watching.  We finally watched Moneyball, which I liked very much, while Mr. Nerd thought the ending was "meh". We also saw The Big Year, starring Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson.  If you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it.  That is - only if you like funny, touching, movies that star talented actors doing funny, touching things. If that's not really your thing, you should probably not see it. 
3. Once we got home from drinking vino, watching movies, meeting sweet babies, and all the other stuff in between, Mr. Nerd took me out for a most special birthday treat.  Two of my favorite things are bookstores and cupcakes; so on Monday, my actual date of birth, the Mister took me to enjoy both of those things.  Getting the cupcakes actually turned out to be quite the adventure, since the shop we had originally planned on going to was closed down.  So, three towns later, we had delicious cupcakes.  Totally worth it though. 
4. St. Patrick's Day Wedding happened.  We just talked about that HERE. Good times! 
5. On a not-so-awesome note, but still something that happened, I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis.  Three years ago I was diagnosed with Psoriasis and as it turns out, 30 lucky percent of those people develop arthritis as a result of the Psoriasis.  Woo hoo, 30 percent! It's OK though.  I am making adjustments in lifestyle and diet to help manage it, BUT this isn't turning into a Psoriasis blog, so if you want to know more - feel free to ask me or read about it HERE or HERE. Both of those links contain gross pictures, so if you're not ready for that, don't click those!  

On to the fun pictures!

Look at that sweet, squishy face! I miss her already! 

Hey there, Birthday Girl!

Road Trip Stormy Storm!

The light at the end of the stormy storm tunnel!

 And last, but certainly not least... Bookstores and Cupcakes!! Weeeeee!

The big FU book wasn't meant to be the star of this photo, promise.

Oh, sweet, delicious cupcakes. I want you in my life right now.

So, there it was. March in a nutshell.  A big, baby-filled, rain-showered, wine-soaked, road-tripped, book-loving, delicious cupcake-filled, psoriatic nutshell.  Now it's time to make sure that April is even more awesome! Happy Spring!

A St. Patrick's Day Wedding

I know I'm a little lot late on posting about St. Patrick's Day, but what can I say? I'm a procrastinator to the core.  The Mr. and I attended a St. Patrick's Day wedding this year.  It's the first holiday wedding we've ever been to. It was a small outdoor wedding in a beautiful park setting, and of course I did not take enough pictures.  Mr. Nerd gets kind of embarrassed by all of my picture taking sometimes, but I'm trying to get him over that sillyness.

Here we are looking cute. It was a windy day and my hair was NOT holding up the way I wanted. So, frizz and flowers was the "look du jour".  Tres chic, non?

We both wore green, so as to avoid any pinching. What is that about anyway? Looks like it's time to google that.

So, I must now mention that this wedding was of a Renaissance theme.  That might help explain what i'm going to show you next.  I'm sure this was a very nice girl, but I did not get the opportunity to talk to her, so I cannot confirm or deny that.  See for yourself....

Why yes, those ARE her butt cheeks hanging out from her feather skirt.

So, that happened. The poor girl was having some trouble managing all of the grassy terrain in her spikey-heeled boots. She may have even fallen down once.  I may have pretended not to see it happen. Maybe.

Moving on - the wedding was very sweet and simple.  The groom was an old friend of Mr. Nerd's and I had never met the bride, so we didn't know many of the people that were there.  We still had a good time though, and managed to mix-n-mingle a bit.  This delicious green ale that the groom brewed may have had a little to do with the easy mingling.

It actually tasted a bit like Shiner. Deelish!

This wedding involved a lot of do-it-yourself special touches, which I liked VERY much.  They even made their own leather-bound guest book! Of course, I didn't get a picture, but I was thoroughly impressed.  Many of the bridal party outfits were handmade and so were the favors we took home.  Check out these cute little layered sand bottles.

Who didn't love layered sand art when they were kids? Only parents, that's who.

 So, overall - St. Patrick's Day was pretty swell. We looked pretty cute, had some delicious green brews, hung out with a bunch of awesome nerds, and went to a wedding that involved a ceremony that directly quoted "The Princess Bride".  I'd call that a mighty successful St. Patty's! And because I know you are dying to see it, here is a pic of the wedding party. Enjoy!