I know, it has been awhile. But what can I say? Life has been pretty nuts lately. During the majority of the school year I had more or less a routine. That routine, my friends, has been disrupted, due to lack of motivation and living life, and my blog updates have become few and far between. This may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on our point of view. Today I will drop some knowledge on my faithful reader(s) that you may or may not care about.

I made some stuffed peppers yesterday, inspired by a book called Hungry Girl: 200 under 200 by: Lisa Lillien, creator of the Hungry Girl brand. Maybe not one of the literary masterpieces about food I’m used to reading (HA), but quite the cute idea book. I’m not all about low-fat, sugar-free, or soy-based products, because I think they wreak more havoc than they are worth, and although Lillien is an advocate of them, easy substitution for the real thing is a no-brain-er. ANYWAY, inspired by her recipe for stuffed peppers, I made some, though I strayed from her recipe somewhat. The cooking times, etc were helpful though.

I know it looks kind of gross and the picture quality is less than stellar, but trust me, it was delicious, not to mention actually HEALTHY. With what I’ve been eating lately, I need to get myself back on the healthy train. Do you want the recipe? If not, skip over this next part.

Stuffed Peppers:

1 Large Bell Pepper (I used green, but you can use any color you like)
1 Plum Tomato, deseeded and chopped
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped yellow pepper (again, color is up to you)
1/4 cup canned tomato sauce
3 tablespoons of shredded cheddar cheese (mozzarella would also work)
1/4 cup chopped ham (or whatever meat you have in the fridge)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Sautee the onions and chopped pepper for about 4 minutes on medium-high heat, then add the mushrooms and sautee for an additional 2 minutes. Transfer this deliciousness into a medium bowl, and proceed to add the tomato, tomato sauce, cheese, and ham. Mix it all up and put it aside.
Slice yo big peppa (the pepper to be stuffed) in half and take out those nasty seeds. Spray a baking dish with some non-stick spray, and put the peppers cut side up on the dish, and put them in the oven for twenty minutes.
When they are done, remove excess moisture with some paper towels, fill with the veggie mixture, and pop those babies back into the oven at 350 degrees for another twenty minutes. When they are done, let them cool, and enjoy.

I feel like stuffed peppers are awesome because you can just put whatever you want in them. And they are delicious. AND I only ate one half of it for lunch and was stuffed (get it?).

The next matter on the agenda is this new book I’m reading called The Unhealthy Truthby: Robyn O’Brien. It’s really fantastic. She tells of her journey to keep her kids safe from allergens, while along the way discovering some scary truths about the way our government is controlled by corporations, especially when it comes to food safety. She developed a website called AllergyKids and has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, and other news programs. I love her book because she is a researcher and cites all these studies and shows how many of them are funded by the food industry itself, exposing the conflict of interest. There is just so much about the corn, soy, and dairy industries, as well as the food chemical industry including companies like Monsanto who have developed/own such chemicals as Agent Orange, aspartame, and rBGH, as well as developed most of the genetically modified crops found in most processed foods. The most shocking thing about everything she talks about is how our governmental system is almost wired so that no agency or corporation has any vested interest in our health, they actually want us to be unhealthy. That’s why countries like the UK, France, and Spain have all banned additives like Yellow-5 and rBGH.

I always think about when I learn things. Every time I learn something new it all seems connected to what I have recently learned, or things important to me in my life now. This book is so relevant to me. I just finished taking AP Biology and AP Government, and without the knowledge of those classes, the book would be less interesting to me. I really understand what O’Brien is talking about, about unfair industry influence on the government and people’s welfare being pushed to the wayside in favor of “Big Pharm” and “Big Food”. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in politics, the food industry, nutrition, the environment, allergies, or health care. It’s quite the eye-opener.

Well, I’m sure only 1% of anyone who has ever read my blog is interested in this latest post. Oh well, hopefully my next entry will be more interesting.

ALSO, I’m in such summer mode right now I can’t even stand it.