Weekend Cookbook Challenge- Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

My first challenge of any kind!!! Although it's not the weekend, I knew this challenge, Weekend Cookbook Challenge, was one to participate in. The theme, hosted by Lis of LaMiaCucina, is Crockpots, Dutch Ovens, and Pressure Cookers. I decided a long time ago, back when the kids were little, that the Crockpot is my friend. I love the idea of making good meals with seemingly little effort. I had planned on cooking up some pork today, but Mark made corned beef yesterday and I didn't want meat again tonight.
For Christmas, I got Lindsay and Lacey both The Taste of Home Baking Book. There is a postcard inside for a free subscription to the Taste of Home Magazine. The first mag came this week and Lacey and I decided that the Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers looked good. I used to make stuffed peppers often, but haven't in a long time.
As usual, I played with the recipe a bit. I used a 14 oz. can of fire roasted tomatoes instead of the fresh. Instead of both the beans, I used 1 can of Garbanzo Beans as we just had black beans recently. I eliminated the salt and added extra Parmesan and some mozzerella.
This is definitely something to keep in my repetoire. This seemed even easier than my usual recipe because you are only precooking the rice instead of rice and ground meat.

Brussel Sprouts with Carmelized Tofu

Oh what a time! I just decide to blog as a way to keep track of what I am cooking and my father-in-law Bill has a big health scare. He never had any problems major problems and has been pretty healthy so this was a surprise.
He went in for a CAT scan the Monday before last. At the scan they found he had a 10cm (4inch!) aortic aneurysm and immediately admitted him to the hospital. The next morning before the surgery they did a cardiac cath (they do this because a lot of aneurysm patients have heart problems- which he or his family have not had a history of) and found arteries 95% and 100% blocked. So they did a triple bypass 2 Tuesdays ago, he recovered for 2 days then did the 5 hour surgery for the aneurysm that Friday. Today my husband Mark and his mom took Bill to a nursing home just for rehab till he gets his strength back- then he gets to start cardiac rehab.
Bill is in for a big wake up- he loves to cook and eat. His specialty is potato pancakes. He loves pork. Whenever he goes out to eat he would ask the waitress for hard butter fresh from the fridge. We joked that his arteries were clogged with potatoes and butter.
Luckily it appears that he is on the road to recovery.
So of course now Mark has decided to try eating healthy. I have been gradually changing the way I cook over the last few years and our 2 daughters (Lindsay, 25, lives in DC, and Lacey, 22, lives at home and goes to grad school) have changed their habits as well. Today I made this recipe for Carmelized Tofu and Brussel Sprouts from the 101 Cookbooks blog. It was Mark's initiation to tofu. I added some cayenne pepper to the tofu for extra zing and used dried cilantro in a much smaller amount cuz we really don't care for it.
All in all a good meal -well received!

Caramelized Tofu Recipe adapted

7 ounces extra-firm tofu cut into thin 1-inch segments
a couple pinches of fine-grain sea salt
a couple splashes of olive or peanut oil2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 t dried cilantro
16 brussels sprouts, washed and cut into 1/8-inch wide ribbons
1/4 t cayenne

Cook the tofu strips in large hot skillet (or pot) with a bit of salt and a splash of oil. Saute until slightly golden, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and pecans, and cook for another minute. Stir in sugar. Cook for another couple of minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro. Scrape the tofu out onto a plate and set aside while you cook the brussels sprouts.
In the same pan (no need to wash), add a touch more oil, another pinch of salt, and dial the heat up to medium-high. When the pan is nice and hot stir in the shredded brussels sprouts. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes, stirring a couple times (but not too often) until you get some golden bits, and the rest of the sprouts are bright and delicious.