(Almost) Vegan Stuffed Bell Peppers

First, here is my source for the recipe: http://www.cookingquinoa.net/quinoa-stuffed-peppers-2/

This meal is a bit time-consuming, but full of nutrients, easy to warm up later and DELICIOUS!

This dish CAN be made without cheese at all and would probably be about as good. We don't seem to have any strong dairy allergies, so we are open to still using dairy, in small portions. 

I didn't have corn for my second batch, but had cauliflower that I needed to use, so I substituted that. I'm sure most other vegetables that you have in your refridgerator that need are going to go bad soon, could be added.

The stuffing is delicious, so I've modified the reciepe to make extra to be added to each serving.

Someone else recommeded the tip to pre-cook the red peppers (for 20-30 minutes) to make the final baking time shorter. I do this. I also mix and heat up all of the stuffing then spoon it into the peppers and cook the whole thing for just about 15 minutes more.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minute

Yield: 6 servings

Serving Size: 1 peppers

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 2 cups cooked green lentils
• 2 (4-ounce) can green chiles
• 1 cup corn kernels
• 1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup petite diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, or more to taste
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 6 bell peppers, tops cut, stemmed and seeded

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine quinoa, lentils, green chiles, corn, beans, tomatoes, cheeses, cilantro, cumin, garlic, onion and chili powder, salt and pepper, to taste.
3. Spoon the filling each each bell pepper cavity. Place on prepared baking dish, cavity side up, and bake until the peppers are tender and the filling is heated through, about 25-30 minutes.
4. Serve immediately.

Gestestational Diabetes

I'm feeling discouraged and sad. I finally took the 3 hr Fasting Glucose test and drastically failed. I have really, really been trying to fight having gestestational diabetes, but here it is. I have been off of medications for it for 2.5 months and have pretty successfully been able to control my blood sugars with diet and exercise, which is totally awesome. I am now going to have to start charting my numbers closely again and if I can't keep it under control, then is will have to go back on medication.

The problem is that, on medications for gestestational diabetes, they want the baby to come by 39-40 weeks, so they would normally schedule an induction. But, being VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), it wouldn't be an induction, it would be another Cesarean.

I don't know why I have my heart so set on a vaginal birth, but today I was tempted to just give up. I wanted a big pizza & Coke for dinner. I cried and took a nap then made vegan stuffed bell peppers for myself, for dinner.

Apparently Gestestational Diabetes is not a disease of my own doing, it's more genetic. I can't help but feel lousy about it, but need to continue to focus on what I have been and CAN do: continue to eat healthy and exercise moderately.

Avacado Salad

Thanks to my sister, this has recently become one of my favorite 'go-to's for some tasty, filling & gratifying bites. This is yummy by itself or as a dip with tortilla chips or seed crackers.  Sometimes I substitute or skip ingredients, based on what's in the kitchen. There are no measurements, just approximate and adjust for taste.
Mix: 2 cans of rinsed garbanzo beans. (Rinsing just sheds some skin & makes them a little prettier.)
1 lg. can black olives, diced
2 small or 1 large diced tomatoes
Chopped green onion
*Can also add diced red bell pepper or corn.
Shake in a few teaspoons of Cumin & Paprika
Pour White Champaign Vinegar, so it's there, but not soup-y, of course.
Stir together.
Lastly, chop & add 4-5 avocados.
Stir again. Adding the avocados last makes them not look yucky or get too smashed. If you are preparing to serve later, I suggest storing the avocado separately and mixing in just before serving.

Italy Part Duo

Well, first things first, I received an email this morning from my mom that all is well at home with the girls. She had plans to take them to the zoo, but Im not sure what day that was.

Suzie has pretend spiders that she plays with at lot. (The same spiders got her in trouble at school a few weeks ago for touching everyone.) These spiders are made out of her fingers, the middle finger being the spiders head. The spiders like to sneak around tickeling our arms and when they are excited they jump up and down. They also take the blame for when Suzie doesnt want to eat or pick up or something. °The Spiders said that they dont want to eat that.° Gabe and I play Momma and Daddy Spider with her too and its a fun family game. Sometimes my hand makes an alligator who plays gently with the spiders but accidently eats them from time to time too. The point is... Gabe and I have brought our Spiders to Italy and when we are missing Suzie our Spiders crawl around on the others shoulder or arm and look around at everything we are seeing. It makes us smile and remember our little loved One at home. We are very fortunate to have my mother playing with her this week, we know she is safe and having a great time, but still miss her and her little Spiders!

Yesterday was a VERY active day and I ended up falling asleep at 630pm. I thought that we would nap and wake up for dinner with friends. At 2am I woke up- starving and ready to go! After walking around our Roman neighborhood a bit, I thought I would take this time to update my blog. Its still only 5am here and the city is still. Fortunately we are going to Florence today by bus so I will have the opportunanity to nap a bit on the bus.

Tuesday after our arrival we started a hop on- hop off bus tour. Gabe and I really like these because they are a great way to get an informative overview of a city while deciding where to spend our time sighseeing. We usually do a full circle first and take notes of stops or areas that wed like to go back and spend more time at. This time we got off a few stops before our first full circle to find dinner and wander the streets back to our hotel. Around every corner is a new fiesta of sights and smells helping us appreciate the gift of being here, in a place where most of the buildings are older than anything in our own country. I cannot imagine the stories these stone walls could tell!

Since we had been awake for SO long we were tucked snuggly in bed by 8p our first night here. Or, at least I was. Apparently Gabe had some electrical issues, blew a fuse and had maintence in our room, which I was so deeply asleep that I knew nothing about!

*I will try to post more of our wonderful Wednesday later.*

On Thursday morning we had a delicious breakfast with sister Pure Romance Consultants and their guests at the hotel. Breakfast is a buffet of fresh cut fruit, cereal, yougert, scrambled eggs, cheese covered tomato halfs, potatoes, undercooked bacon or sasuage, European bread, to-die-for pasteries, thinly sliced meats and a selection of cheeses (including FRESH mozerilla balls).

Afterwards we met with the whole group downstairs. There are 24 Pure Romance Consultants on this trip, some of the top from 2009, out of about 30,000 active consultants in the company. Each consultant earned this trip by reaching mininum personal sales last year of $75,000 and 25 Recruits. We have also each brought a guest, so the room is also full of spouses, parents and friends. The founder of Pure Romance, Patty Brisben is here with two of her children, Matt & Lauren. Matt brought his finace Rachel and Lauren brought her boyfriend, Andy. From the office are our two newly appointed Vice Presidents- Cheryl Force with her boyfriend Mike and Chris Mac, with his wife Leigh. All together it is a large, but cozy group, smaller than any of the other Pure Romance trips that I have been on.

We loaded onto two buses, each with a private tour guide. The groud was wet outside the hotel and I was afraid Id have to return to the room for our umbrella. If I did that I thought that Id also have to change my shoes and I really didnt want to do that. My toes do not like being tied up in shoes all day. They like my open sandles (FitFlops = LOVE!) are so much more comfortable! Our guide Sylvia, narrated to us the history of many of the building and answered our pesky questions as the driver navigated the tight streets filled with small cars and mopeds.

Our first stop was at the Vatican where e traded in our concelled weapons (ha ha) for radio frequency ear pieces so that we could hear Sylvia without her having to shout or us having to push and shove to be close enough to hear.

The Vatican is a soverign nation within the city walls of Rome, ruled by the Pope who is also the head of the Catholic Church. Within teh Vatican City are hallways of ornate old and and ancient artwork- paintings, mosiacs, tapestries and sculpture. One hallway is filled with giant handwoven tapestires from teh 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. Another has such a detailed painted ceiling with shadows that it appears to be mouldings, but is really only two demensial. Sylvia guided us through these and oriented us on the history of the Sistine Chapel by MichealAngelo, which is also in the Vatican. It took MichaelAngelo 4 years to paint this enormous ceiling in fresco, which is a type of pigment to cover the plastered ceiling. Until the Industrial Revolution the Vatican (and everything else) was lit by candles so smoot had coated all of the artwork. By paying for the cleaning and restoration of the ceiling a Japanese television station has secured the rights to photographs within the Chapel.

We had only a moment to stop in the official Vatican giftshop on our way to lunch.

Lunch in Italy is usually 4 or 5 courses, I cant remember. We were guided to a basement resturant with stone walls and beautiful modern decor with gold features. Our first plate was of pasta with a red sauce. Then we were served a small salad with either salmon or a piece of chicken prepared so perfectly that the meat fell right off the bone. After that was a small dish of chocolate and mint gelato. We took our time wining and dining, enjoying each others company and building friendships.

After lunch we reboarded our buses and headed to the Collesium.

Its time to wake Gabe up now for breakfast! Today we are heading to Florence to see more of the most amazing and influencial art history in the world. Tomorrow (Saturday) Gabe will be going to the cities of Naples and Pompeii. Because I have been there before I am opting to see more of Rome with friends and attempt to do a little shopping!

Arreviderchi!
Nancy Wharton

Dear Friends,
We have arrived! Rome is alive with smells, sounds and sights that we are finding to be enchanting and so unique from the usual dust of home in Phoenix. Our hotel room is filled with all of these when we open the gigantic window that also overlooks a delicious, tiny sidewalk cafe.

Our flight landed yesterday *Tues, April 14th* around 9am and we were shuttled to our hotel, the Exedra at Piazza Della Repubblica, where we were warmly greeted by the founder of Pure Romance, Patty Brisben, her son Matt Brisben and the new Vice Presidents Cheryl Force and Chris MacIntire. The hotel has giant columns at the entrance and marble stairs so old that you can see the slope on each step from hundreds of years of use.

The Saturday night before we left Gabe and I had both been too excited to sleep well, Sunday night we were up late packing and of course had to leave at 4am Monday to begin this journey. Eagerly toting our luggage we explored our way through the wide marble hallways to find our room. Oh my! Where to begin? First, I am more than in love with the padded cloth walls which go up about 12 feet. Then the wall continues about another 6 feel with beautiful decorative molding and topped with crown molding. The headboard on the king size bed is padded leather and there's a pad of buttons on each side of the bed to control all of the room's lighting. The bathroom is all marble as well and although we've never seen a bed so inviting and were beyond ready to crash, to deter the longer effects of jet lag we freshed up and hit the town!

... to be continued...

My Contact Info

Feel free to contact me at any time. My email address is findingnancy@gmail.com