Mini Stuffed Peppers

I bought ground beef in an effort to up my iron intake, only then to realize that I have no idea what to do with ground beef. I didn’t have buns to make a burger and was afraid of attempting a meatloaf, so what’s a girl to do? My best piece of advice here is to ask your mom. Without fail, she’ll have the prefect ground beef recipe just ready and waiting for you use. My mom’s idea? Stuffed peppers.

Here’s the recipe she gave me and my first attempt at this classic dish.

Mini stuffed peppers

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

• 4 mini green stuffed peppers (tops cut off and de-seeded)
• ½ pound ground beef
• 1 cup of cooked rice
• ½ jar of tomato sauce
• ½ yellow onion (chopped)
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
  
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• ½ teaspoon dried basil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Shredded mozzarella cheese

Garden Zucchini Linguine

I finally fell victim to the zucchini noodle trend. I’ve been seeing it flying around Pinterest and initially wrote if off because, you know, Pinterest lies. But after hearing a couple rave reviews, I tried it out. To my surprise, it was actually really tasty and not too difficult.

There are a bunch of recipes out there, but here’s what I did.

Zucchini Linguine with Heirloom Tomato Sauce

Ingredients: Serves 2

• 1 large zucchini — the one I used was the size of a caveman club
• 2 large heirloom tomatoes (cubed)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic (diced)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 6 leave fresh basil (chopped)
• Salt and pepper

To prepare the zucchini:

Step 1: Shave the zucchini lengthwise with a carrot peeler to create long, even strips. Stop shaving once you reach the seeds. Use all four sides of the zucchini.

Tuscan Beans on Toast with a Poached Egg

I have a confession. I’ve never made a poached egg before. In reality, I’m sure the majority of 23-year-olds haven’t attempted cradling an egg in boiling water. Who’s got the time, and fried eggs are basically the same, right? Wrong.

Poached eggs are eggs in their most heavenly form. Over easy and sunny side up are great if you like runny yokes, but you always run into the issue of under cooking the whites or over cooking the yokes. Poached, on the other hand, offers a perfect consistency and make just about any dish better.

While yes, poaching eggs is a little more work than just plopping them in a frying pan, but it’s worth it. I promise. Plus, if I made a perfectly poached egg on my first try, you can too.

Tuscan Beans on Toast with a Poached Egg

Ingredients: (serves 1)

For beans on toast:

• 1 slice of toasted, crusty bread (I used two slices of a baguette because that’s what I had)
• 1/2 can white beans
• 2 tablespoons tomato sauce (I used whatever I had open in the fridge)
• 1 slice Canadian bacon or any other type of meat (chopped)
• 1 clove garlic (diced)
• 1 teaspoon chives or onion (diced)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 ounce Parmesan (I cut slices but shaved works too)

Easy Parisian Crepes

Nothing is better than Paris in the spring. Therefore, to celebrate the first few days of spring I decided to make crepes! Traditionally, crepes are a bit of a headache. With such a thin batter, crepes easily tear and often cook unevenly. Instead of going through the hassle, I found pre-made crepes in the supermarket.

Melissa’s crepes are all-natural, no-preservative pieces of heaven. They can be found in the fruit section of the supermarket and are incredibly easy to use.

Here’s my recipe for easy Nutella and strawberry crepes.

Ingredients: (Serves 10)

• 1 Package of Melissa’s pre-made crepes
• 1 Container of strawberries (sliced)
• 1 Jar of Nutella
• Powdered sugar

Traditional Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day

Happy (almost) Saint Patrick’s Day! Last year, I discussed the health benefits of St. Patrick’s Day. This year, I’m celebrating by making a traditional Irish dish — soda bread. Irish soda bread is a quick, no-yeast bread that’s absolutely amazing. It taste similar to a British scone, slightly sweet and peppered with juicy raisins.

Want to get in the Irish spirit? Try my Irish Soda Bread recipe.

Irish Soda Bread recipe

Ingredients: (Yield 1 loaf)

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons or 1/2 stick cold, unsalted butter diced
• 1 large egg
• 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 cup yellow raisins

Top 5 Super Bowl Party Recipes — Recap

Super Bowl XLVIII is almost upon us. If you’re not a Seahawks or Broncos fan, that means you’re spending your time focusing on one thing — Super Bowl food. I’m not a huge football fan, but I am a huge food fan (if you haven’t already guessed). That means this Sunday gives me yet another reason to create and consume mounds of delectable goodies.

I was attempting to finalize this weekend’s menu when I found myself scrolling through some of my own Cooking On Empty recipes. To my surprise, I have a lot a dishes that would be perfect for an easy, cheap, and delicious Super Bowl party. To make it easier, I’ve complied them all in one place.

Here are the top five Cooking On Empty dishes for the perfect Super Bowl party.

5. Super Bowl Sunday White Sangria

Diced Potato, Leek, and Pepper Hash

I recently took a knife skills class and like any good educational experience, it inspired me to dice. Dicing is the term for cutting food into small 1/4 inch squares.

Dicing is a rarity in my cooking repertoire. There are very few times I must summon my dicing skills with dinner go-tos like baked chicken and fish tacos. So, I had to pick the right recipe to practice my new craft. In an effort to continue my education, I pulled out a pound of potatoes and began dicing.

After completing my potato-cutting marathon, I decided to make the one dish where diced potatoes are the star — home fries.

Diced Potato, Leek, and Pepper Hash Recipe

Ingredients: (Serves 6-8)

• 6 potatoes (diced)
• 1 bell pepper (diced)
• 1 leek (diced)
• 6 strips of bacon (chopped)
• Light beer
• Salt and pepper to taste

Beat the Winter Blues with Summer Pasta Salad

Winter storm Hercules just bombarded the northeast with the wrath of a Greek god, leaving millions already wishing for summer. While we’re still bracing for some cold months ahead, it doesn’t mean we can’t pretend it’s summer — at least with our food choices.

Nothing reminds me of summer more than a colorful pasta salad. Millions of iterations of this dish exist, but I prefer to keep my pasta salad simple. All you need are some veggies and left over pasta.

Here’s my summer pasta salad recipe that’ll cure the winter blues.

Summer Pasta Salad Recipe

Ingredients: (Serves 4-6)

• Italian dressing
• 1 box of cooked pasta (any shape)
• 2 carrots
• 1 green pepper
• 10 wax beans
• 1 small tomato
• 1/8 cup Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper

Halloween Dinner: Spooky Mummy Dogs

I redeemed myself! After posting my last horribly embarrassing miniature caramel apple fail, I managed to prepare an adorable fall themed dish without it looking like melting intestines.

This time I veered away from the lie machine known as Pinterest and settled for a corporate site. Pillsbury’s website to be exact. It’s full of cute and creepy crescent roll creations, plus each recipe has been meticulously measured in a test kitchen to ensure happy customers and future Pillsbury purchases, unlike Pinterest.

My latest Halloween inspired creations were mummy dogs! I made them while babysitting my elementary school-aged neighbors and they turned out to be a fun and easy dinner project. Plus, you only need five ingredients!

Pillsbury Mummy Dogs recipe

Ingredients: (Serves 6)

• 1 package of hot dogs
• 1 container of Pillsbury crescent rolls
• 6 slices of American cheese
• cooking spray
• mustard (for eyes and dipping)

Pinterest Fail: Miniature Caramel Apples

Pinterest is a trap. It lures in un-crafty people with pictures of miniature whoopie pies and then crushes their hopes when they come out looking like cat turds.

Sorry for the graphic imagery but Pinterest got me again. My company held a fall themed cook-off. Two of the judging categories were appearance and fall-ness so obviously I thought Pinterest’s plethora of sickeningly cutesy foods would deliver me a winning dish.

I settled for mini caramel apples. I trekked to my local ACME, purchased 6 apples, a bag of Popsicle sticks, caramel sauce, and sprinkles. Then proceed to spend the next two hours cursing Pinterest and eating lukewarm caramel sauce. Here’s my Pinterest failure.