Bell Peppers Stuffed with Tabbouleh

As a good little Armenian housewife-to-be, when I found a recipe for bell peppers stuffed with homemade tabbouleh in the vegetarian cookbook Allie gave me for my birthday, I marked it immediately as one I had to make.  I love tabbouleh, and I loved stuffed peppers.  I've never made my own tabbouleh before and was a little concerned that I needed to buy something called bulgur, but I gave it a try!

The bulgur was pretty simple to make; you just boil it and then let it sit in the water for ten minutes.  It puffs up and gets sort of soft.  Quinoa-esque but not exactly; kind of couscous-esque but not quite.  I am not sure how to explain it.  If you've ever had tabbouleh, you get what I mean!

Once the bulgur is cooled, you can mix the tabbouleh together: bulgur, diced cucumber and cherry tomatoes, golden raisins (these by far are the best part!!!), mint, scallions, and parsley, with a "sauce" of lemon juice and olive oil.  Is your mouth watering already?  Because just rereading the ingredients has me really wishing I had leftovers still.

This is a good summer meal (not that we are there yet, but I am subconsciously hoping!) because you only need to use the stove, not the oven.  Unlike many stuffed pepper recipes, these guys aren't baked (Mark did broil some that we gave to Christy though).  The peppers are just sliced, stuffed, and enjoyed!  That makes them pretty quick, and cool enough for the hot weather (it's coming someday).  I noticed that these are great served while the tabbouleh is still cooling, but are also good served cold, or room temperature, or basically any time.

My mom had had doubts about this meal (she kept wishing I would just stuff the peppers with ground beef or something equally gross), but she really loved it too.  She even had seconds of the tabbouleh, and ate it without peppers the next day (she agreed that the raisins really make it special!).  Mark ate two!  And Christy and Reagan enjoyed my extras (I doubled it like a crazy person).  So: I found another vegetarian meal that people will eat without complaining!

Recipe:

bell peppers stuffed with tabbouleh

from Simply Delicious: Vegetarian by Carla Bardi
serves 4

Ingredients:
8 ounces bulgur
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
8 ounces cherry tomatoes, diced
2 scallions, finely chopped
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup golden raisins (but I doubled this... they are so good in there!)
freshly squeezed juice of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons finely chopped mint
4 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
2 green bell peppers
2 red bell peppers
mint leaves to garnish

Instructions:

1) Cook the bulgur in a large pot of salted boiling water for 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let swell in the water for 10 minutes.  Drain and let cool completely (or somewhat if you're in a rush like me!).

2) Mix in the cucumber, tomatoes, and scallions.  Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Add in raisins, lemon juice, mint, and parsley,  Refrigerate for 2 hours (I didn't).

3) Halve the peppers and remove the seeds and filaments.  Fill with the tabbouleh.  Garnish with the mint leaves and serve.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

I love lasagna roll-ups, which is surprising considering I hated lasagna and would have loudly announced it to anyone who would listen a year or two ago.  My family and I have all become a bit obsessed with the caprese lasagna roll-ups that I discovered in December, and I have made them multiple times.  Every time, my whole family adores them and we eat them all.  So, when I saw a recipe on Skinny Taste for spinach lasagna rolls, I knew I had to try them.  Skinny lasagna rolls!?  With spinach!?  Yes please.

This was the first time that I used frozen spinach in any recipe.  I have to say, I wish I used fresh, just because it looks so much more appetizing, but the taste was still fine - just not as good as fresh.  I kept thinking of my spinach and ricotta raviolis, and missed that super fresh spinach taste (I think I will go with baby spinach next time; I'll blanch it and then chop it).  The spinach gets mixed with fat free ricotta, grated Parmesan, an egg, salt and pepper.  Then the filling gets spread onto lasagna noodles and baked with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.  Considering all of those ingredients are among some of my favorite things, it was obvious that this recipe was going to be great!  They are quick and easy and end with lasagna roll-ups, so what's not to love?

And, they were lovable.  I still think the capreses are my favorites, but these guys are a very close second.  The spinach and the cheeses mixed together fabulously, and the rolls are pretty filling - one was more than enough for me with a nice slice of Italian bread and some salad.  In general, I have never met a lasagna roll I don't like!

Recipe:

spinach lasagna rolls
from Skinny Taste

Ingredients;

9 lasagna noodles, cooked
10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and completely drained
15 ounces fat free ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt and fresh pepper
32 ounces tomato sauce
9 tablespoons part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine spinach, ricotta, parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.  Ladle about 1 cup tomato sauce into the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.

2) Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles.  Make sure noodles are dry.  Take 1/3 cup of the ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle.  Roll carefully and place seam side down into the baking dish.  Repeat with remaining noodles.

3) Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tablespoon mozzarella cheese.  Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts.  Makes 9 rolls

Servings: 9 • Serving Size: 1 roll • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 6 ww pts
Calories: 224.9 • Fat: 5.1 g • Fiber: 3.4 g • Protein: 13.0 g • Carbs: 31.5

Coconut Macaroons

When you are craving something sweet, but also not craving cankles and pot bellies, coconut macaroons are the treat for you.

Is that too strong of a beginning?  I knew I wanted to start with something about how great macaroons are, and the (possibly) even greater part is that they're so not bad for you.  Two cookies are only 3 Weight Watchers points, 129 calories, and 7 grams of fat.  And that's two cookies!

But unlike lots of healthy cookies, these macaroons are so delicious.  Coconutty, sweet, chewy, moist, gluten-free... what's not to love about these guys?  Add that to the fact that they are really fast and easy to throw together... there's basically no reason why you aren't making them right now.  Or why I don't keep them on hand all the time for my family, because these babies were totally gone in about 2 days!  I made macaroons before, but something about these ones just got everyone extra excited!  This will be my go-to recipe from now on!

Recipe:

coconut macaroons

from Skinny Taste

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (or 5 large) egg whites

2/3 cup granulated sugar

10 ounces sweetened coconut flakes

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch salt

Instructions:

1) In a heavy saucepan, combine egg whites, sugar and coconut flakes and cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until the ingredients come together, about 12-15 minutes.  The mixture should be sticky and moist, not dry.  

2) Remove from heat and stir in the two extracts. Set aside on a dish and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3)  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Using a tablespoon, scoop tightly packed tablespoon-fulls onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.  Bake 27 - 30 minutes until golden.  Makes 38 cookies.

Eating the last macaroon!

Eclair Ring

At work, people get famous for certain recipes.  Everyone knows that Dianah makes a great cheesy potato casserole, and Laura is the kielbasa person (no thanks).  And Diann is known for her amazing eclair ring.  It's a ring of puffy pastry, stuffed with vanilla cream and topped with chocolate frosting.  Basically picture an eclair blown up to insane proportions: amazing.  It always goes at work parties, and when she made it for Kenzie for her birthday this year, she brought home the leftovers and we devoured them.  So last week when I made that weird chocolate roll and wasn't sure how it would turn out, I decided to make this too as a back-up since I knew that it was going to be great.

Diann had texted photos of the recipe to Kenz, so that's what I used.  As with all hand-written recipes, I had to figure out some things for myself, but it was still a pretty easy recipe, considering the fact that there are three separate parts to this dish: the pastry, the filling, and the chocolate.  It all came together pretty quickly!

The pastry was very similar to the croquembouche I made for Thanksgiving (or, in laymen's terms, the cream puffs).  The dough is a choux and is thus made on the stove out of water, butter, flour and eggs.  You have to spread it onto a cookie sheet in a ring shape and bake it.  What was a little weird was that mine puffed up so beautifully, but collapsed when I took it out.  Diann said that happens to her sometimes too, especially if she doesn't preheat the oven.  I always preheat mine so that can't be it.  I will try to bake it for a little longer next time.  It didn't ruin the cake by any means, but it would certainly look nicer if it stayed all puffed up.

The next step was to make the filling, which was ridiculously simple because it is just 2 packages of vanilla instant pudding mixed with milk and cream.  Rich, smooth, and absolutely delicious (I may or may not have eaten the extra filling that didn't fit into the ring).

The chocolate frosting tastes exactly like the chocolate frosting on top of eclairs.  Who knew: it's just melted butter mixed with cocoa powder, confectionary sugar, milk and vanilla. Another very simple recipe.

To put it all together, you cut the ring in half and put the filling inside, then top with the chocolate frosting.  And, just like I expected, this dessert was a huge hit.  Everyone who had it rated it their favorite dessert when compared to the chocolate roll, and many people had seconds.  The next day, we were all still reaching into the fridge for more pieces, and by Monday afternoon, it was totally gone.  It's rare that I make a big dessert like that that literally everyone who tries it loves, but this was it, and I will definitely be making it again.  Thanks Diann!

Recipe:

eclair ring
from Diann at work :)

Ingredients:

for pastry:
1 cup water
1 stick butter
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs

for filling:
2 packages instant vanilla pudding
1  1/2 cup milk
1 pint heavy cream

for frosting:
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1  1/2 cups confectionary sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

1) Make pastry: Bring water and butter to a boil.  Add flour and salt.  Beat with a fork until a ball of dough forms.  Cool for 10 minutes.

2)  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until dough forms another ball after each addition.

3) Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet forming a ring with dough.  Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower heat to 325 degrees and bake for 20 minutes.  Cool, and cut in half.

4) While ring is baking, make filling: beat all ingredients together until smooth.  Refrigerate until you are ready to use it.

5) Make frosting: melt butter and stir in cocoa until dissolved.  Add confectionary sugar, milk, and vanilla, and stir.  Add more milk if needed.

Chocolate Swiss Roll with Marshmallow Frosting

My mom gets it in her head that she loves certain desserts, but then sometimes when I get around to making them, she doesn't love them as much as she thought.  For example, she insisted that one of her favorite desserts of all time is a mocha roll , which I made her last year and distinctly remember throwing out a large amount of it.  To be fair, none of us really have a sweet tooth, and Mom can't be expected to eat an entire mocha roll, but still.... when she started begging me for a new cake roll, this time with marshmallow frosting, I balked for weeks.

I finally couldn't ignore her begging any longer, and on Saturday I made it.  My aunt Tracy, cousin Kelsey and her roommate were coming for dinner, and so I decided it was as good a time as any to give it a shot. Here's the problem (well, one of them): the recipe is from a food blog much like mine: a blogspot.com blog to be exact, an amateur chef and blogger like myself.  This was no Annie's Eats or SkinnyTaste.  This was Alissa Mays.  No offense to her, but she left out some rather important information, such as the size of the jelly roll pan that she used to bake her cake.  I just grabbed a pan and used it, and I realized (far too late) that my pan was too big, and the cake was going to be very thin and not fill up the entire pan (and thus not be a perfect roll-able rectangle).  My advice would be to use the smallest jelly roll pan you have, or maybe to double the cake recipe and use a big one.  My cake itself ended up being fairly thin and small since I tried to spread it as evenly as I could in the pan.

The good news is that the filling was great.  In fact, I think I should use this frosting on basically everything.  It is soft and billowing and sweet and tastes not just like butter but marshmallow and wonderfullness.  As a sweet hater, even I will confess to licking my knife when I was done smoothing it on the cooled cake roll.  However, as great as the frosting is, you have to really like it to love this cake, because as you can see in the picture, since the cake is so thin, you get a lot of filling in one slice.

I had so many doubts about this cake that I ended up making a second (amazing) dessert just in case (be ready for my next blog post!  It was a hit!).  But luckily my doubts were unfounded.  People liked this one too!  In fact, Tracy said she wasn't sure she was going to like it because she isn't a big fan of Fluff, but she said it was delicious.  And luckily my mom loved it, especially after begging for it for weeks.  The recipe said to chill it before serving, but Mom said it's way better at room temp.  I have to admit that even though it had its issues, it still looks really pretty.  With some tweaking, this could be a really amazing dessert.

Recipe:

chocolate Swiss roll with marshmallow frosting
from Alissa May's, originally from Martha Stewart

Ingredients for Cake: 
Vegetable-oil cooking spray
1/4 cup sifted unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, plus more for pan
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour (not self-rising), plus more for pan
Pinch of salt
3 large whole eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled completely

Instructions:

1) Heat your oven to 450 degrees.  Prepare your jelly roll pan by spraying it with non-stick spray, then line it with parchment paper and spray again. 
  
2) In a small bowl, sift together the cocoa, cake flour and salt. Set aside. 
  
3) In another heat proof bowl add the egg's, egg yolks and sugar. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture becomes warm to the touch.  Transfer to a mixing bowl and beat for 2 minutes on medium high speed. Now turn the mixture on high and beat for about 4 more minutes until the mixture is light and pale.  Add the melted butter by pouring it down the side of the mixing bowl and then incorporate by hand with a spatula.  Add the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and fold in by hand using a spatula until combined. 
  
4) Spread the batter into the prepared pan and using an off set spatula spread it out so the entire surface is covered. Bake for 6-7 minutes or until the cake springs back when touched. 
  
5) Remove from the oven and prepare a clean kitchen towel by laying it out and sprinkling cocoa powder on it.  Next, invert the cake onto the towel and roll it (with the towel) starting at one of the short ends.  Let the cake cool.  
  
6) When cool, unroll the cake and spread the top with frosting up until about 1/4 inch from all sides.  Next, roll the cake up again (not with the towel) and place it seam side down onto a dish.  Cover and refrigerate until cool.  
  
Marshmallow Frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature 

1 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional)

One jar Marshmallow Creme (I used Jet-Puffed 13oz) - I only used about 2/3's of the tub.  Keep tasting it until you find the desired flavor you like best.

Mix the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy and add the confectioners' sugar 1/4 cup at a time until mixed thoroughly. Add the vanilla extract and marshmallow cream in a bowl until well combined.