Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

With my new "try to eat a little healthier" thing, I bought some quinoa.  When I came across the Quinoa Stuffed Peppers Recipe from Undressed Skeleton I thought it sounded pretty good.  I used that recipe as a guide, so check it out, but I wanted to use what I had on hand so I changed several things.

• 1  onion,  chopped
• 4 pieces of celery,  chopped

 Heat some oil in a pan and saute the onions and celery.  Throw in any spices you want.  I added garlic powder and salt and pepper.

• chopped up spinach leaves - 1-2 cups
• 2 cans diced tomatoes, drained

Stick the diced tomatos and  chopped up spinach in a pot, and add in the sauteed onion mix.  Cook til the spinach looks wilty. (like 5 minutes)

• 1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3/4 cup quinoa
• 1 cup water 

 Add a cup of water (in the picture I added 2 cups but it was too much) and the quinoa and a can of black beans.  Simmer it for 20 minutes so the quinoa gets soft.

At this point the insides were ready, but then I realized it would take an hour for the bell peppers to cook, so I put the inners mix in the fridge and made stuffed peppers the next day when I had more time for cooking.  So it is an easy meal to make ahead.

I had 3 peppers and cut then in half top to bottom, to make 2 sides.  Then filled them with the inners mix from above.  Bake in a dish covered in foil for about an hour.  Then add cheese to the top of each pepper and bake without foil until the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.

Yum.  The kids even liked it! 

I had a bunch of quinoa inners mix leftover, so the next day I took that and made it into a soup by adding it to a couple of cans of tomato sauce with some of those noodles filled with cheese in it - tortalini? - anyways, it was super good.

Sharpened!

I read somewhere that you can sharpen your rotary cutter by running it over foil.  Well, the other day I borrowed my aunt's "pinking shear" blade and she warned me that it was probably pretty dull because she mainly uses it for paper - and I wanted to cut fabric.

So I busted out the foil - worked like a charm!

Healthy Eating

I can't remember if I've mentioned it or not, but I have been on a "no sugar" eating regiment.  I wanted to try to be sugar free for 3 weeks, like a sugar cleanse.  Well, it'll be 3 weeks tomorrow - and I think I did pretty good!!  Some thoughts:

--I didn't see a difference the first couple of weeks.  But at the start of this, the third week, I feel like my belly is a little less giggly.  I don't think I've lost weight but I wish I would have measured my waist because I think I lost a layer of flab.

--I am not so sure it's because I cut out sugar or if it's because of what I eat that has sugar in it - like multiple cookies a day, desserts every night, etc.  Since I wasn't eating that sort of thing because it had sugar, it meant I was cutting out lots of unhealthy things by default.

--I did eat honey.  And agave.  And salad dressing, which has sugar.

-- About 1 1/2 weeks in I had a mini banana bread muffin - wowza, was it good!!  Then later that week Trevor made smoothies with Lemonade concentrate in them - that has sugar.  And I had cheesecake pie on pi day - it didn't have hardly any sugar in it, but there was a little.  Other than that, I think I was sugar free - pretty good!

I did make treats a couple of times.  I would use Agave instead of sugar.

I also am continuing to use the Almond Flour from Honeyville Grain.  It's easy to use and I just substitute it straight for flour.  It had been working great in baking and I'd really recommend it.  And remember, it's gluten free for all of you that have that concern.

I did have a bit of trouble when I substituted almond flour into my crepe recipe.  But with a little tweaking (adding a couple more eggs to hold the batter together) I got it to work great.

 I am excited to get back to eating yummy things with sugar, but I think I will try to eat them in moderation.  Instead of daily, multiple times.

In the Mail

A while ago I came across the blog Giver's Log and their happy mail, where she talks about how you can mail all sorts of things 13 ounces or less.  Well, we had friends come visit from out of town and they left a toy.  When I saw a discarded mini water bottle, I thought I should shove it in there instead of using a boring envelope - so I did.

 And, the toy held captive - I hope he was able to wave to a lot of postal workers on his journey:

You've got to check out the Giver's Log - because wouldn't it be awesome to get a bouncy ball in the mail??  Or send some Easter treats - possibilities are endless! There are tons more ideas listed.
 Images from her blog:

Go try it  - I did!

Random

A few random things...

• um, I love my new counters - the peninsula is awesome!!  it's about 3 feet longer than before, and no longer has a cooktop or giant hole in it, so I can actually use it.

• There are only about a dozen entries in the Celebrating Spring Contest - that's pretty high odds of winning the $50 to Amazon...

you've got til tomorrow to get in on that.

• And speaking of $$, you could also win $40 to Target with GigGis Petals HERE!  again, you've got til tomorrow.

• Paparazzi is awesome.  I just got an {amazing} commissions check.  If you've ever wanted to make money on the side doing something fun, this could be for you!!

• Sponsors!!! - - if you're a blog reader, don't forget to check out a few of those sponsors on the sidebar - they make things possible!!  If you have a blog/shop and want to sponsor, I have super great rates.

• Did you see that I'm a part of the upcoming season of Project Run & Play??  Holy moly, am I intimidated!!  Have you followed along with that competition - those people can really sew!!  I think I might be out of my league....

--stay tuned, one more post coming up today (yep, a lucky 3-post day....)