Turkey Sausage and Rice Stuffed Green Peppers

I decided to practice LENT with Matthew this year. It's not something I have ever practiced but when Matt's mother gave him and myself a LENT folder, I thought why not?! I decided to give up beef, pork, and soft drinks. The first two are hard, I love bacon as I've mentioned before. Giving up soft drinks isn't too hard, I only crave them when I'm at the movies with a buttery popcorn. I only want what I can't have. I felt like I didn't cook with beef and pork frequently at home, but I feel like I have had to be more creative with recipes. I was at Meijer on Sunday and caught the Jennie-O turkey products on sale for 20% off. I stocked up on hot turkey sausages, ground turkey, and turley cutlets. There was a recipe I'd found in one of my magazines for sausage stuffed peppers, so I thought I'd re-vamp the recipe using the hot turkey sausages I had found.

Turkey Sausage and Rice Stuffed Green Peppers (2 servings)

2 green peppers

1 cup cooked brown rice

2 cups marinara sauce

1 TB oregano

½ - 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

2 hot turkey sausages (uncooked)

Optional add-ins: mushrooms and extra green pepper dices.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the sausage from the casing, brown in a skillet and break up into smaller pieces. When the sausage is cooked, add the oregano and marinara sauce and reduce heat to low. Halve the green peppers and remove the seeds and ribs. Place the peppers in a roasting pan or on a cookie sheet face up and lightly spray with extra virgin olive oil. Mix in the rice and any add-ins at this time to the sausage mixture and take the skillet off the heat. Add the cheese. Fill each pepper half with the mixture and top with more cheese. Cover with foil and place in the oven. Bake for 30-60 minutes; depending on how done you want your green peppers. Serve with extra marinara sauce and a mixed salad.

Regatta's

Have you ever eaten at Regatta’s in Lexington Green? I purchased a Groupon to Regatta’s last week. I’ve always wanted to go but never had, so this was a good opportunity. The place was dead by the time we arrived at 9:30PM which is our typical eating time when we go out to eat. The waiter, Jason, was pleasant and let us know that all of the seafood is flown in fresh daily. I quickly ordered the raw oysters. It’s been forever since I had them and they were delicious. For the entree, I ordered the Maryland crab cakes and Matt ordered shrimp scampi. The crab cakes were so-so. Nothing to go crazy about. They had a nice dipping sauce that was sweet and sour. There were also fried green tomatoes on the bottom but they were tart and I didn’t enjoy eating them. The shrimp scampi on the other hand was delicious. It was cooked to perfection. It was probably the best shrimp I have ever tasted at a restaurant. Matt quickly ate it up along with his tree-sized broccoli stem. I would definitely go back to Regatta's. There were many things on the menu that I would like to try. When it's warm, they have a nice patio and view of the pond at Lexington Green.

On a more sad note, I will not be continuing my culinary education after this month. I have loved my nutrition class but unfortunately Sullivan was not honest with me when I enrolled about tuition costs and I just can't afford to go right now. I am going to just move it to the back burner for now and hopefully will get back to it one day. In the meantime, I want to focus back on my blog and try to keep up with it more.

To end on a happy note, I have moved apartments and will have a new roommate in April, Lindsay Bruner. We worked together at Winn Dixie/EW James for 5 years and she's moving back to Lexington. I'm so excited to live together because I know we will have a blast cooking. Also, she's a great photographer, so now I have my own personal food stylist for my blog. (Thanks ahead of time, Lindsay!!)