Healthy Wholesome Vacation Dinner

While in Florida this past weekend, hanging with the fam, Dan and I cooked a tasty meal for our in-laws and nieces.  Our goal was to go healthy as well as kid friendly with a mixture of veggies, cheesy goodness and protein.  Sadly, although I can't say these items were a hit with the children, the grown ups seemed to love them!

Stuffed Peppers with Chicken Sausage - Improvising this meal on my own, there's not too many ingredients involved and all you virtually need are some nice looking veggies and a protein of your choice.  Making sure to get some beautifully colorful peppers, Dan prepped them nicely by cutting the tops off and cleaning them on the inside.

We then sauteed some mushroom/spinach/asiago cheese chicken sausage with diced red onion and stuffed it into the pepper.  A simple topping of parmesan or sharp cheddar cheese and some breadrumbs will do just fine for the finishing touches.  Bake this baby on 375 - 400 for about a half an hour and you'll have yourself a deliciously healthy dish.

Mac and Cheese with Broccoli - Even though this was music to my ears, the kids weren't about it, mainly due to the broccoli factor (I should've known).  A topping of panko breadcrumbs made it extra crunchy, and I'd also recommend drizzling olive oil on top to achieve that pretty golden crust.  Here, you can access the easy recipe for this dish, courtesy of Martha Stewart.

Chickpea Salad - The kids actually seemed to dig this one (when they stripped out the tomatoes and basil).  Overall, it's a very simple and refreshing dish that's perfect for the summer. I love the use of seasonal ingredients and the no frills vinegar dressing that adds a little zing. Take a look at the recipe, courtesy of greenlitebites.

Leftovers-Stuffed Peppers

Mmmm...I love anything stuffed.  Stuffed mushrooms, stuffed cabbage (my mom's and grandmother's specialty), stuffed crab, stuffed chicken...and also stuffed peppers.  I made them only one other time before and was quite happy with the results.  That's why when I saw an easy and attractive-looking recipe for ragu stuffed red peppers, I was motivated to try it.  The "ragu" part called for leftover red sauce, but since we didn't have this in the house, I ended up just buying a good quality version in the grocery store.  We did however, have all the other ingredients such as chopped meat from leftover turkey meatloaf, golden raisins, cous-cous and cheese.

The toughest part of the recipe was cleaning the peppers and taking out the seeds, which if you've done it before know that it's not that difficult.  I loved all the beautiful colors in this dish, and suggest getting different colored peppers to enhance your visual experience.  As you can see, I stuck with red and yellow, but might mix in green peppers too next time. 

Dan and my in-laws loved the finished product and could hardly believe that it all came from leftovers.  We each had two pepper halves along with some salad, sweet potatoes, carrots and celery that we had from the night before.  The meal was not only filling, but healthful too.  Let me know if you try it and the fun alterations you make to it.

Ragu Stuffed Peppers Recipe