Stuffed Peppers with Black Beans & Rice, Microgreens, & a Cabbage/Carrot Salad
Here’s a pic of what I ate and made for dinner tonight. I had eaten meat for dinner all week so thought it would be nice to go veg and I had a craving for beans and rice.
I’ve made many versions of this stuffed-pepper before, but I’ll share with you what I cooked up tonight.
I sauteed some mushrooms and onions with organic butter (try to go organic when consuming dairy as toxins are often stored in fat, in both humans and animals). While sauteing my veggies, I had the brown rice cooking separately. Next I added the black beans to the mushrooms and onions and spiced it up a bit with sea salt, black pepper, red hot chili flakes, cumin, and basil. If I had oregano, I would have added some of that, but I was out. Feel free to experiment and add or omit any spice. Often I cook with certain spices based on my mood and cravings for that day or meal. Today I was feeling the need for something spicy hot, hence the chili flakes (I actually ended up adding some cayenne to my plate when finished for additional kick since I was cooking for another person who cannot tolerate the spice factor as much as I can).
I cooked the beans and veggies on low heat, stirring occasionally. Next, I added some tomato sauce and let it cook some more. When the brown rice finished, I added some of it to the bean/veggie mixture and stirred making sure all the rice was coated with the delicious bean concoction. There’s really no real rule to how much rice to add — depending on how rice-y or bean-y you prefer the mix, add the rice accordingly. I prefer mine more wet than dry, so I don’t add too much rice.
I had cut in half a red bell pepper and steamed them so that they were somewhat cooked. I suppose you could eat them raw, but steaming is fast and still healthy. I then stuffed the rice/bean mix into the pepper halves and topped them off with sliced fresh mozzarella cheese and then put them in my toaster oven to melt the cheese.
My carrot/cabbage salad was very simple to prepare. I just sliced both carrots and cabbage into fine shreds (you could use a food processor to save time if you’d like, though I didn’t). My dressing was some apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and dill. The dill really adds a nice touch and I love vinegar, especially on crunchy veggies. So fresh and suitable for summer. The microgreens were just microgreens — nothing special to prepare. They come ready to eat — I just drizzled some olive oil on top, but you could add any salad dressing or not.
Voila! That’s it…I love how my plate had a variety of colors. Red, green, orange, purple, black, white, etc.
Try to eat an assortment of foods and a rainbow of colors to ensure that you are getting all the minerals & vitamins.
Enjoy!
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Mike is a holistic nutritionist that helps people feel more optimistic about their health and wellness through changes in diet and lifestyle shifts.
He has authored posts and articles featured on MarthaStewart.com, today.com, and iVillage.com.