Progress

My biggest fear in trying to improve our diet is that this little cutie will starve before he'll try to eat a new food. Here he is eating a frozen strawberry. He's getting a little desperate with no graham crackers in the house. :)

Last night I felt like I had a little success in making a great recipe a little healthier. We got a bunch of red bell peppers in our produce box this week, and I love to make stuffed peppers when we get them like that. It's a labor of love, but they are really good. I've never searched for the healthiest version of stuffed peppers because of my aversion to most vegetables. My friend said these were great, so I tried them and I agree with her. My kids were not impressed when they came to the dinner table, but they all liked them. Well, they ate the filling anyway. Here is the original recipe a friend gave to me.

Stuffed Peppers from Melissa Hansen
6 bell peppers
1 T. butter
1 T. olive oil
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce, divided (one can is for the sauce)
1 clove crushed garlic
1 t. oregano
1/2 t. basil
2 t. salt, divided
1/2 t. pepper
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 1/2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 1/2 c. cooked rice
1/2 to 3/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 c. sour cream

Cut tops off of peppers. Remove seeds and membranes. Chop edible parts of tops and set aside. Rinse peppers under cold water. Place peppers in a large pot. Cove with salted water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain peppers and set aside.

Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat until hot. Saute chopped green pepper, chopped onion, chopped celery for 5 minutes or until tender. Add tomatoes, 1 can of sauce, crushed garlic, oregano, basil, 1 t. of salt, and 1/4 t. of pepper. Simmer 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg with remaining salt and pepper and Worcestershire. Gently stir to blend. Add ground beef, cooked rice, and 1 c. of the tomato mixture. Mix well. Stuff peppers with meat mixture and place in a 3 quart baking dish. Pour remaining tomato mixture combined with extra can of tomato sauce and sour cream over the top of the peppers. Bake at 350 for 1 hr. If desired top with cheddar cheese just before done baking.

So, to make it a bit healthier, I sauteed the onion, celery, and peppers in water rather than butter and oil. I also used about 1/2 lb of meat rather than a whole pound. I substituted quinoa in for the rice just because it cooks faster than brown rice, and I am trying to find recipes where I like it (I'm not ready yet for this Mango Quinoa Breakfast). I also cut the salt in half and didn't miss it. I was out of eggs, so I mixed a tablespoon of ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons of water and let it sit for a couple of minutes and used that as a substitute for the egg. I didn't put the cheddar cheese on top, and I don't think it needed it at all. I used a large dollop of fat-free sour cream rather than a whole cup. I almost used plain Greek yogurt, but the date on my sour cream was almost up. I think it probably would have been fine without that, too, though. It was absolutely delicious. Even Ryan said he liked it. He finally relented and tried some when he saw I was baking oatmeal cookies for dessert. So much for a healthy evening, eh? :) Clearly, I have a long way to go.

Tomatoes: My brother told me once he would give me 50 cents for eating a tomato (I think he upped it from one quarter to two when he saw I wasn't going to do it at first). I almost threw up. It was so nasty. This week, however, I have voluntarily put tomatoes on a few salads I prepared for myself. I am so proud of myself! Can I hear a big cheer from the Littles please? :) They used to pick tomatoes in the greenhouses and pour a little salt on them while eating them like apples. Oh, that grossed me out! But I am making progress. I don't even think the texture bothered me while I was eating them this week. I think I can finally say that it is now just a psychological block. I couldn't bring myself to eat a bite with just a tomato in it -- it had to be filled with lots of other things, too, but I could eat it. And I did like it while I was chewing each bite. I just kept catching myself scooting my fork around them on my plate. I had to make a conscious effort to scoop them up and eat them with each bite. But, that's more than I've ever done before.

Cheese: I love cheese, and Ryan loves cheese. However, in a serving of the cheddar cheese I had in my refrigerator last week, there were 100 calories. Of those 100 calories, 70 of them came from fat. That makes it 70% fat, right? Is my math or my reasoning off there? I read nutrition labels all the time, but just stopping to notice that and say that the cheese was 70% fat really grossed me out. I haven't had a hard time cutting out the cheese this week. Ryan, on the other hand, was not happy when we ran out.