Weekend wrap up time!!

Weekend wrap up

Friday Night

Friday night…oh how I love thee…I was able to have my first girl’s night out in quite some time. Did we party? Go dancing/clubbing until the early hours of the next morning? Nope…my girlfriend and I met at one of our favorite local eateries, and enjoyed TWO whole glasses of wine and an awesome dinner/conversation/laughs. I was home and in my sweat pants by 9 pm. And guess what, it was just an awesome evening that I hope to get to do again soon!

Saturday Morning

I went to bed the night before at 10 in preparation for Saturday morning’s 10 mile run. This run was nearly canceled due to freezing rain…nearly…but I met up with a couple of my running friends and we made it through the chilly morning and the last 3 miles of freezing rain pelting us in the face. Pure awesomeness.

like my will run for chocolate headband? And wow, I looked terrible, HAHA!

Saturday Afternoon

We went took the girls to lunch, and then picked up my oldest daughter’s friend to go see the new Oz movie. We even got to meet a munchkin! Pretty cool!!!

Sunday

Epic failed on setting the clocks ahead last night, and sadly woke up too late to make it to church. We instead went for breakfast, and ran all of our errands and did our food shopping for the week. And this is where I got my inspiration for tonight’s dinner…when I looked over at the peppers in the produce section they just CALLED out to me…they were HUGE, and so fresh looking.

Nothing better than cooking with your kids.

Stuffed Peppers and chopped Salad Recipe:

Ingredients for Stuffed peppers

½ lb of lean organic ground beef, and ½ lb of lean organic ground pork

4-6 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

1 white onion, chopped

I package of garden vegetable flavored quinoa

1 can of tomato puree (or your favorite marinara sauce will do)

Basil, marjoram, parsley, kosher salt, pepper, roasted red pepper flakes (pinch of each to taste)

Pat of unsalted butter

Time to cook!

-Melt a pat of unsalted butter in a small pot, and add a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil to the pot. Lightly sauté 2 cloves of garlic and roasted red pepper flakes for 2-3 minutes. Add your package of quinoa, and cook according to the package instructions. (Normally add one cup of water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15 minutes).

While your quinoa is simmering, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Sauté the remaining garlic and chopped onion in extra virgin olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add in your meat, salt, pepper, and cook until lightly browned.

While your meat is cooking, you can ‘gut’ your peppers, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Drain all drippings from the meat, and incorporate your quinoa. Set this aside.

Pour a can of tomato puree in a bowl, and season with Basil, marjoram, parsley, kosher salt, pepper, roasted red pepper flakes (pinch of each to taste).

Scoop your mixture into the peppers, and then cover with the tomato puree. Bake for about 35-45 minutes, or the pepper becomes slightly soft.

The chopped salad:

-is whatever you desire/have in your fridge. J

Tonight we had romaine hearts, red cabbage, cherry tomatoes, seedless cucumbers, red onion and my homemade vinaigrette.

The vinaigrette is made by putting two tablespoons of Dijon mustard into a bowl, add the juice of one large lemon or two small lemons as well as a pinch of the zest. Grate on a micro plain one clove of garlic, and add to the bowl. Dash of white wine vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle in extra virgin olive oil and whisk until mixed entirely through.

Serve, and enjoy! We paired the stuffed peppers with one of our favorite Pinot Noir wines by Duckhorn.