Stuffed Peppers
Hubby and I visited the doctor’s office last week to talk with a dietitian about food and what we can and can’t eat. First of all....let me start by explaining a bit about our health issues.
My health is not the best but its manageable. I am very over weight and I need to lose about 80 lbs. To complicate matters even more, I have a slow working thyroid and a very slow metabolism. I take .88 mcg of synthroid daily. Currently, my TSH is regulated and I am ready to start kicking this extra weight to the curb. I also have acid reflux (probably due to my extra weight) and IBS symptoms. With a family history of heart disease I have been prescribed a low fat, low sodium diet as well as a medication, called Metformin, to help stabilize my blood sugar and, in turn, reduce those crashes which cause a person to crave those sugar sweets we so love to eat. My doctor has recommended that I start slow and lose 1lb a week. That seems doable...and that is my focus.
My husband is a walking disaster - not really, I love him dearly - but he has a list of health ailments a mile long. He has been diagnosed with ulcers, acid reflux, asthma, tons of allergies (none food related thank goodness), pancreatitus, diabetes, and fatty liver. His family also has a history of heart disease and he is also over weight, though not nearly as badly as I am. His weight issues stem partly from excessive steroid use to treat his asthma during childhood. He is exercise challenged due to a pin placed in his knee when he was an adolescent - so limits the type and duration of exercise. He takes pain meds daily for his pancreatitus. The doctor believes his pancreas and liver problems are due to a high-fat diet. Which is possible due to his past work history - he has always worked in the food industry, from fast food to catering. He has been a cook and a restaurant manager since he began working at the age of 16. Getting out of the food industry was the first thing his doctor prescribed. He is now in college working toward a career in IT Networking/Programming.
All of this may sound like a big sob story, but please bare with me...it leads me to the point of this post - diet. We are on a journey of diet discovery - eating healthy, low-fat, low sodium, low sugar foods. Our diet will not be a traditional diet - one that you start and eventually stop someday - but more of a lifestyle change. We must change the way we eat....not for a day, not for a few years, but for life.
One of the coolest tools the dietitian gave us was something called the “plate method”. It calls for setting up your plate in this way: 1/2 non-starchy vegetables, 1/4 starchy vegetables, 1/4 meat/protein. You can get a better idea of how this works here. Our first endeavor with this began with last night’s meal. My daughter has been staying with us and she brought the ingredients to make stuffed peppers. Our menu included Stuffed Peppers, Steamed Broccoli and Cauliflower, and German Cucumber Salad. Below is the recipe we used for the Stuffed Peppers. We had this for dinner last night and left overs for lunch today!
Stuffed Peppers
Serves 8 Peppers, stuffed.
8 Medium to Large sized Green Peppers
2 bags of Knorr Cajun Rice sides - Dirty Rice flavor
4 cups hot water
1 lb of lean ground beef
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 jar or can spaghetti sauce (about 2 cups)
Salt to taste (we use sea salt as recommended by our doctor)
1 cup shredded mexican blend cheese (low fat)
Start a large stock pot full of water to boil on the stove. While that comes to a boil, slice the tops off of the peppers, be sure to save the tops (part of that can be diced up and used in the rice mixture). Remove the seeds and stem and discard. Wash the peppers inside and out. Set upside down on a cutting board to drain. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Once the pot of water is boiling, add the peppers and cook for approximately 5 to 10 minutes and carefully remove - making sure all water has been dumped from inside the peppers. Place peppers in your baking pan open side up.
In a deep frying pan, fry up your lean ground beef, salt to taste. When its just barely pink, add the diced onions and 3 or 4 of the green pepper tops, diced. Cook until onions are translucent and ground beef is no longer pink. Drain any fat from the pan (if your beef is lean enough there won’t be any). Add the dirty rice packets to the pan and stir to combine until all the seasonings from the rice packets are moistened. Add 4 cups hot water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium to simmer for about 7 to 8 minutes until the rice is tender.
Fill each pepper with rice and hamburger mixture. Top with spaghetti sauce and then with cheese. Bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Peppers are done when they are easy to cut with a fork.
Anyway, the stuffed peppers were delicious and I just had to share the recipe...if you have a variation on stuffed peppers, please share! I would love to learn new ways to make this delicious dish!
Thanks for reading! Cya next time.
My health is not the best but its manageable. I am very over weight and I need to lose about 80 lbs. To complicate matters even more, I have a slow working thyroid and a very slow metabolism. I take .88 mcg of synthroid daily. Currently, my TSH is regulated and I am ready to start kicking this extra weight to the curb. I also have acid reflux (probably due to my extra weight) and IBS symptoms. With a family history of heart disease I have been prescribed a low fat, low sodium diet as well as a medication, called Metformin, to help stabilize my blood sugar and, in turn, reduce those crashes which cause a person to crave those sugar sweets we so love to eat. My doctor has recommended that I start slow and lose 1lb a week. That seems doable...and that is my focus.
My husband is a walking disaster - not really, I love him dearly - but he has a list of health ailments a mile long. He has been diagnosed with ulcers, acid reflux, asthma, tons of allergies (none food related thank goodness), pancreatitus, diabetes, and fatty liver. His family also has a history of heart disease and he is also over weight, though not nearly as badly as I am. His weight issues stem partly from excessive steroid use to treat his asthma during childhood. He is exercise challenged due to a pin placed in his knee when he was an adolescent - so limits the type and duration of exercise. He takes pain meds daily for his pancreatitus. The doctor believes his pancreas and liver problems are due to a high-fat diet. Which is possible due to his past work history - he has always worked in the food industry, from fast food to catering. He has been a cook and a restaurant manager since he began working at the age of 16. Getting out of the food industry was the first thing his doctor prescribed. He is now in college working toward a career in IT Networking/Programming.
All of this may sound like a big sob story, but please bare with me...it leads me to the point of this post - diet. We are on a journey of diet discovery - eating healthy, low-fat, low sodium, low sugar foods. Our diet will not be a traditional diet - one that you start and eventually stop someday - but more of a lifestyle change. We must change the way we eat....not for a day, not for a few years, but for life.
One of the coolest tools the dietitian gave us was something called the “plate method”. It calls for setting up your plate in this way: 1/2 non-starchy vegetables, 1/4 starchy vegetables, 1/4 meat/protein. You can get a better idea of how this works here. Our first endeavor with this began with last night’s meal. My daughter has been staying with us and she brought the ingredients to make stuffed peppers. Our menu included Stuffed Peppers, Steamed Broccoli and Cauliflower, and German Cucumber Salad. Below is the recipe we used for the Stuffed Peppers. We had this for dinner last night and left overs for lunch today!
Stuffed Peppers
Serves 8 Peppers, stuffed.
8 Medium to Large sized Green Peppers
2 bags of Knorr Cajun Rice sides - Dirty Rice flavor
4 cups hot water
1 lb of lean ground beef
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 jar or can spaghetti sauce (about 2 cups)
Salt to taste (we use sea salt as recommended by our doctor)
1 cup shredded mexican blend cheese (low fat)
Start a large stock pot full of water to boil on the stove. While that comes to a boil, slice the tops off of the peppers, be sure to save the tops (part of that can be diced up and used in the rice mixture). Remove the seeds and stem and discard. Wash the peppers inside and out. Set upside down on a cutting board to drain. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Once the pot of water is boiling, add the peppers and cook for approximately 5 to 10 minutes and carefully remove - making sure all water has been dumped from inside the peppers. Place peppers in your baking pan open side up.
In a deep frying pan, fry up your lean ground beef, salt to taste. When its just barely pink, add the diced onions and 3 or 4 of the green pepper tops, diced. Cook until onions are translucent and ground beef is no longer pink. Drain any fat from the pan (if your beef is lean enough there won’t be any). Add the dirty rice packets to the pan and stir to combine until all the seasonings from the rice packets are moistened. Add 4 cups hot water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium to simmer for about 7 to 8 minutes until the rice is tender.
Fill each pepper with rice and hamburger mixture. Top with spaghetti sauce and then with cheese. Bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Peppers are done when they are easy to cut with a fork.
Anyway, the stuffed peppers were delicious and I just had to share the recipe...if you have a variation on stuffed peppers, please share! I would love to learn new ways to make this delicious dish!
Thanks for reading! Cya next time.
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