Greek-style Stuffed Peppers and Greek WonTon Cups

The other day I noticed that I had a little bulgur and some feta I needed to use and 6 gorgeous peppers, so I turned to The Food You Crave and found a recipe for Greek-style Stuffed Peppers. I made a couple changes to the recipe- I used ground turkey breast instead of ground beef and added a can of cannellini beans. I was able to fill 12 pepper halves and still had a little of the meat mixture leftover, so I made some Greek WonTon cups- using Greek Seasoning to flavor them and cooked up the leftover meat mixture. I put the mixture inside and topped them with some chopped plum tomatoes. Yum!

Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger

1 pd lean or extra-lean ground beef ( I used 20 oz. ground turkey breast)

One 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 medium zucchini, coarsely grated ( about 1 1/2 cups)

1 15-oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 small onion, minced

1/2 cup bulgur

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1.2 tsp salt

Freshly ground pepper to taste

3 medium red bell peppers, cut in half lengthwise, core and ribs removed

Two 14.5 oz cans no-salt-added stewed tomatoes, finely chopped and juices reserved (I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes, seasoned with olive oil and garlic)

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the beef, spinach, zucchini, beans, onion, bulgur, egg, oregano, salt and a few grinds of pepper. Mix until thoroughly combined.

Arrange the pepper halves cut side up in a 9x13-inch baking dish and fill each pepper half with the meat mixture. Pour the tomatoes with their juices over the peppers and sprinkle with the feta. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Uncover and bake the peppers until filling is completely cooked and the peppers are tender, about 45 minutes longer.

To make Greek WonTon cups- Go to this post and substitute Greek Seasoning for spice mix used.

Up next- Homemade Samoas for my Matt, on his birthday

Fried Green Tomatoes and Green Tomato Bread

My dad loves tomatoes. He grows a ton of them in his garden, so when this time of year comes along he is stuck with enough green tomatoes to feed an army. He asked me to help him figure out what to do with them and I remembered a Green Tomato Bread that I made last year about this same time. If you think it sounds wierd, don't. It is a quick bread, like banana bread and is quite delicious. It has no tomato flavor. I just used a recipe I found on line and changed out some of the flour with whole wheat, used half of the oil called for and changed it to canola, used applesauce, and halved the amount of pecans. It was good!

Then I thought Fried Green Tomatoes would be fun. I went with Southern Living's recipe because some things just shouldn't be lightened :) So, if you eat just one, you don't have to worry. The recipe yield 10 fried green tomatoes.

If you have any green tomatoes you need to try and use, give these recipes a try!

Fried Green Tomatoes from Southern Living

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup all-purpose flour, divided

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

3 medium-size green tomatoes, cut into 1/3-inch slices

Vegetable oil

Salt to taste

Combine egg and buttermilk; set aside.Combine 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl or pan.Dredge tomato slices in remaining 1/4 cup flour; dip in egg mixture, and dredge in cornmeal mixture.Pour oil to a depth of 1/4 to 1/2 inch in a large cast-iron skillet; heat to 375°. Drop tomatoes, in batches, into hot oil, and cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden. Drain on paper towels or a rack. Sprinkle hot tomatoes with salt.

Green Tomato Bread adapted from Recipe Goldmine

3 cups all-purpose flour ( I used 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups finely chopped or ground green tomatoes- about 2 medium

1 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8 x 4-inch loaf pans.Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture.Combine eggs, oil and vanilla extract; stir well. Add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Fold in tomato and pecans. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center of bread comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire rack.

Coming Tomorrow- Operation Baking GALS Roundup- For real this time!