Simple Stuffed Peppers

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Coco

My husband really likes stuffed peppers, and while my son won’t eat much of the pepper shell (he boycotts most vegetables), he does like the filling (and I manage to sneak in some veggies there). I adapted this recipe from Cooking Light and it has become a family favorite. 

Ingredients
1-2 cups cooked rice, cooled 
4 medium bell peppers (green, yellow and/or red)
3/4 pound lean ground beef (or ground turkey or ground chicken)
1 cup chopped onion
1/8 tsp allspice
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups pasta sauce, divided
1/2 cup (2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese

  • Cook rice and cool.
  • Preheat oven to 450º
  • Slice tops off peppers, dice edible portions, and set aside
  • Remove seeds and cores from peppers (discard those!), place peppers cut side down in a microwavable dish, cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 2-3 minutes (until crisp-tender)
  • Dice onion
  • Brown diced onion, diced peppers and ground beef, then drain
  • Add the spices and 3/4 cup to 1 cup pasta sauce and heat through
  • Stir in cheese until uniformly mixed
  • Stir in rice until uniformly mixed
  • Place peppers cut side up in an oven-proof baking dish and fill with rice mixture
  • Spoon pasta sauce over top of each pepper, covering the filling completely
  • Cover with foil and bake for 20 min
  • Remove foil and bake for 5 more min

I always have enough extra filling left for another dish.


I still haven’t figured out the perfect rice-to-meat ratio–I usually end up feeling like there is too much rice–but my guys don’t mind.

Do you have a favorite stuffed peppers recipe?

Posted in Food | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Half Calf

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Coco

Last week my left calf started hurting big time. By Wednesday, it was very tender, making me limp, and noticeable even when I was in bed. By Thursday, it was aching even when I was sitting down.  Because of my history, I made a doctor’s appointment for Thursday afternoon. Because of my history, the doctor ordered an ultrasound to rule out a DVT (blood clot).

I was relieved when the ultrasound didn’t show anything unusual, but puzzled about my calf. It hurt near the top of my calf, not in the middle where I would expect a calf strain. While it bothered me when I walked, it hadn’t bothered me when I ran on Wednesday. I couldn’t remember doing anything to injure it. The doctor prescribed rest (with gentle stretching and light activity), ice and alternating Tylenol/Motrin.

Friday morning I started my day with my favorite yoga routine–the “Twists” program on my Rodney Yee A.M. Yoga For Your Week DVD. I took Tylenol and Motrin but never got around to icing it. While I was working at my kitchen counter Friday evening, I crossed my legs and–ouch!–found that tender spot. I remembered working at home most of Monday (Memorial Day), sitting at my kitchen counter, crossing my legs. Was that the source of my problem? I made a point to keep my legs un-crossed and stood and stretched frequently.

I alerted my friend that I wouldn’t be able to meet her for a run on Saturday, and just took my dog for a walk instead. When I took my dog out again in the afternoon, I noticed that my calf did not hurt at all.  By that point I was pretty sure that the whole episode stemmed from my over-zealous leg crossing. I sent a text message to my friend indicating that I might be able to run on Sunday morning, and she immediately tried to convince me that I was fine.  The weather in the D.C. area was amazing this weekend–with temps in the upper 50s and low humidity at our usual o’dark-thirty running time.

We met up for a run at her house (her neighborhood has gentler hills than mine) and went for 6 miles instead of our usual 7 or 8. My calf felt fine, and I felt good as we averaged a 9:15 min/mile pace.

So, I guess I will cancel my follow-up doctor’s appointment, but I’m not sure I’ll tell the doctor my theory of what I really did to my calf.

On a similar note, ever since my chiropractor fired me and I made a doctor’s appointment about my ITB/piriformis issue, that hasn’t really bothered me either! My ITB feels a smidge tight when I run, but it hasn’t been bothering me any other time.  I still am going to keep at least my first few physical therapy appointments because I know I have some muscle imbalances, but hopefully I will be explaining what “usually” bothers me instead of pointing to current pain points.

Have you ever had a mystery injury?

Did you ever figure out what it was?

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Praying Outside The Box

Posted on June 3, 2012 by Coco

When I walked into church on Sunday, I wondered if it was set up for a special day school event. I first noticed butcher paper on the walls of the narthex with baskets of markers near by. Then, in the back of the sanctuary I saw a table with clipboards, drawing paper and crayons, and another table with large balls of Play-Doh. As it turns out, our priest had set up a variety of “prayer stations” with different “activities” to encourage us to take different approaches to prayer.

During our service, instead of listening to a sermon we were given time to explore the activities. I ended up visiting four of the prayer stations:

Cloth Braids (for relationships):
Select three strips of cloth–one for yourself, one for the other person in the relationship, and one for God. (Silly me! I was going to pick one for me and one for each of my children, leaving God out of the picture until I learned the directions.) It was a very powerful experience to pray with the image of God literally weaving the two of us together.

Worry Stones:
Select a stone and pray over it with whatever is weighing down your heart. Place the stone in the baptismal font as a reminder of the promise in Matthew 11:28:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will refresh you.”

Scrabble Words:
Use Scrabble tiles to build on a crossword that describes your relationship with God.

Prayer Candles:
Light a candle as you pray for those in need of healing, to lift them up into God’s care.

(My priest explains the others on her blog)

Have you ever prayerfully walked a labyrinth?

Posted in My Faith | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

My Four Day Work Week

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Coco

I wonder why I feel so stressed at work, and then I realize that I have not put in a full week of work (Monday-Friday) in ages. Since this is my son’s senior year of high school, I made going to his lacrosse games a priority, even if that meant leaving work at 3:00 or 4:00 a few days a week.

Two weeks ago we took Friday off to head to the state championships. It would have been worth it even if they didn’t win, but the smiles on their faces really are priceless.


(Team captains with the championship plaque)

My son hurt his hand during that game, which led me to take the next Friday off to take him to the orthopedist. (Luckily nothing was broken.) 

June doesn’t look much better for work.  I have off June 1 because my son is having surgery to repair a lacrosse injury he’s been suffering through since last summer. (He wasn’t willing to miss wrestling last winter to have the surgery earlier.)

I have off June 8 for the day-before-graduation events.

I will be out of town June 15 for an all-day meeting.

I will be out of state June 22 for a conference.

I wish I had June 29 off to get a head start on a July 4th vacation, but I probably will be in the office, trying to catch up!

All of these events are worth the stress and pressure of working nights and/or weekends to stay ahead of deadlines–besides, there will be plenty of time to work next year!

Has your schedule been crazy lately?

Do you have summer vacation plans?

Posted in Life | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Book Review: Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close By Jonathon Safran Foer

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Coco

I was interested in this book before it was made into movie, but never got around to reading it or buying it until after the movie came out. I did not see the movie (and have no plans to), so I can’t compare the stories, but I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. (That title is an Amazon Affiliate link which means that if you click through and make a purchase I will earn a small commission–thank you for your support!)

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Movie Tie-In): A Novel

As summarized on Amazon:

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey.

I was reluctant to buy the book because the story sounded so sad, but when I saw that it was a New York Times Bestseller, I downloaded a free sample (part of the first chapter) on my iPhone Kindle App, and then downloaded the full book so I could keep reading.  It was one of those books that I didn’t want to put down but also didn’t want to end.

This is the second book that I’ve read this year that is told from the perspective of a young boy (the first was Pigeon English), and I once again found myself enjoying the fresh view on things both mundane and profound. It was funny, poignant, and bittersweet.

Do you read this book or see the movie?

Does anyone else read books on their iPhone?

Posted in Book Reviews, Life | Tagged , | 2 Comments