Category Archives: Quinoa

Spicy Slow Cooked Peppers


This time of year the homegrown peppers are bountiful. We are lucky enough to have neighbor’s with a beautiful thriving garden. They are very generous and always share their harvest. This recipe is a good way to use up some of those peppers from the garden. Bonus is this recipe freezes really well which allows you to enjoy the harvest more than one time a year.

I made this recipe for our monthly RD meeting. I try and feed the team a home cooked meal to show my appreciation. This recipe makes a lot of peppers so it is good for a meeting or potluck.

The picture below is a half buchel of Hungarian Hot Peppers we canned which  are also good for stuffing.



Prep time:30 minutes

Cook Time: 8 hours on low

Ingredients:

1 pound spicy Italian sausage

1 pound 93% lean ground beef

1/2 cup cooked red quinoa

1 tablespoon sriracha

1 cup of your favorite tomato sauce

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

3 green onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

8 large banana peppers, tops cut off and seeded

8 large bianca sweet long peppers, tops cut off and seeded

64 ounce low sodium spicy V8 (you might not use all of this)

Tools for the job:

6 quart slow cooker

Pepper seeder

Directions:

1. Caution wear food safe rubber gloves. Remove pepper stems. Carefully remove seeds and membranes; set peppers aside. Combine the tomato sauce, sausage, beef, quinoa, cheese, onions, garlic, sriracha, salt and pepper; stuff into peppers.

2. Stack peppers longways in slow cooker. Pour V8 over peppers and place cooker on low heat for 8 hours.

Enjoy!

 

Special Tip: The banana peppers can be very tricky sometimes they are hot and sometimes they are not. So if you want to be on the safe side I would recommend using the bianca peppers which are a more sweet pepper. 

Tri-Color Quinoa


I love quinoa! This Tri-Color Quinoa goes well with just about any dish. I make it in bulk on the weekends and serve it up with most of my lunches or dinners during the week. Add it to beans, salads, place onto of portobello mushrooms, stuff peppers with. Really you can use it just about anywhere you typically use rice. I prefer it over rice because of it’s nutty flavor and fluffy texture. Quinoa provides more protein than traditional grain products. A 1/2 of cup uncooked quinoa provides 8 grams of protein.

Ingredients:

1 cup of dry (rinsed through a strainer) Quinoa (I like the tri-colored but you pick your favorite)

2 cups of water

1 tsp of Penzey’s Vegetarian Soup Base

1 tsp of Pasta Sprinkle (or Italian seasoning)

1 tsp Roasted Garlic Powder

Directions:

  1. Place a 2 quart pan on a burner with vegetable base, garlic powder, water & quinoa on high. Allow the quinoa to come to a boil.
  2. Once the quinoa is boiling, decrease the temperature to simmer and place lid over pan.
  3. Allow the quinoa to simmer for 15 minutes with lid on. After 15 minutes have elasped check to see if the grain is fluffy and no water remains.