Thursday, March 19, 2009

CEIMB: Greek Style Stuffed Peppers or Cooking Disaster...you be the judge


The recipe this week was chosen by Ali of The Healthy Hostess. I was excited about a stuffed peppers recipe because the stuffed peppers I usually make tend to be very boring ...onions, ground turkey breast, squash, zucchini, salt pepper, red pepper flakes, and a little melted Swiss or mozzarella cheese. They are good, but not very exciting.

So, needless to say, I was excited about a new recipe that changed things up a bit. I even went out on a limb and bought bulger wheat. I still don't know what it is, but I am the proud owner of virtually an entire box of it!!

As for the recipe -- I used ground chicken because Publix was all out of ground turkey breast. I also substituted diced tomatoes for stewed tomatoes. I didn't even realize this was a substitution until my dear friend Peggy explained the difference to me the other day. Thanks Peggy! So come to find out I use and will continue using diced tomatoes in everything I make. Really, the diced v. stewed thing is something I just don't have time for! So, other than these 2 changes, I think I followed the recipe to a T. I made the peppers on Sunday night and got them all ready to go for baking on Monday night. Monday night I rushed home and added the tomatoes and feta and threw the tomatoes in the oven. 70 minutes passed, 90 minutes passed and at the 2 hour mark, I finally decided to call them done. They were brown on top and looked very delicious. Granted, cat food was starting to sound pretty good by that point too. So, I sliced into the pepper and started eating it. My first impression was that it was very bland -- nothing that some salt and pepper couldn't fix. I also thought that the meat mixture turned out a little dry and dense. So, even though it wasn't not my favorite stuffed pepper, it would fill a hollow space and I wasn't going to complain too much. That is until I realized that the meat mixture in the peppers was no where close to being cooked -- in fact it was still raw ground chicken! Great, I thought -- just what I need...salmonella. So, into the trash the peppers went.

I think I will stick to my boring old stuffed peppers recipe, because there was way too much disaster involved with this one for me to ever think about making it again. Plus, I usually cook everything before stuffing the peppers which eliminates the "still raw in the middle" possibility.

Thanks Ali for picking this recipe. I hope everyone else had more luck with their stuffed peppers than I did!

Luckily, for desert I had one last lava cake to eat! I will have to post a picture of this creation later! Oh, and no sickness to report after eating not just raw chicken, but raw ground chicken. Im counting my lucky stars!

11 comments:

  1. Oh no. Now I am glad I used the ground beef. Good effort, I can't believe it was still raw after 2 hours!

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  2. I can't believe you threw those away! You should have just popped them in the microwave for a few more minutes to finish cooking. We are ours last night and they were good! Such a treat for me because I never get to cook with peppers thanks to dear hubster. Your photo looks great!!

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  3. Oh...so sorry!! If you decide to make these again you could always brown the meat up before stuffing them. I didn't get to make these this time around but I would have probably browned the meat first b/c I would be afraid of exactly what happened to you! I can't believe it was still uncooked after all that time!!

    Your pic of it looks good!!!

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  4. Jen, you and I were making these peppers in a parallel world! I had so many of the same experiences that it's frightening! I'm glad no one got sick and hope next week's recipe is more successful! (I think you definitely earnned a big serving of lava cake.)

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  5. Oh no! I am so sorry yours didn't turn out well! Thank goodness so one got sick from them!

    Pam

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  6. I had the same uncooked peppers. If you didn't let your prepared dish come to room temp. from the refrigerator, that might have been the reason for the long cooking time. Who knows? - maybe our ovens are off? ;)

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  7. Wow! I am so sorry that these didn't work out for you. What a disappointment. By the way, I use diced tomatoes all the time. Not sure what the difference is, but I loved those little cans! So easy!

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  8. Your photo looks wonderful, and 2 hours of cooking - that's frustrating that they didn't turn out for you. I think the more meat you pack in tightly the longer it would take to cook them through. Hopefully you can look at this one a learning process and next weeks mango chicken will be rockin'

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  9. You are kidding me! What a nightmare! These take way long to bake (even if they actually cook through!) to be a good weeknight meal. You know, I was thinking how I would like the flavor more if I browned the meat first. These definitely needed more flavor. I am not going to give up on the recipe, but it needs work. Yours still looks good, though! Hope you aren't permanently traumatized!

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  10. I'm sorry these didn't work out for you. Eventhough I used beef i still would have preferred cooking it first. Better luck next week :)

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  11. I used diced tomatoes too and always do. Sorry they didn't work out.

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