I am sure there will be plenty of times I write whiny blog posts, but today, I feel like writing about something more positive. Not having A around during the evening sucks because we don't have a lot of family time together, but it allows me a chance to hang with my girls whenever I want. Since I've become domesticated (ha!), my house has become an amazing place for my friends and even my mom's friends to come and hang out. I jokingly call it the "Lonely Girls Club". We eat dinner, we do crafts, we talk out our problems, and de-stress. I love that everyone feels comfortable in my house and they know that they are all welcome any time. We have all been through so much together. We've eaten our way through a few divorces, abusive spouses, break-ups, stressful kids, etc... We have celebrated birthdays, new jobs, new relationships and the bond we share as friends. We have tie dye days in the summer and make Christmas gifts in the winter. Whether it's around my dining room table or on my deck, we have always have fun! The kids usually like coming over too because L has SOOO many toys!
It's so cool, my mom knows she's always welcome to invite her friends (I consider most of her friends as my family anyway!) When my friends plan a get together for all of us, it's always implied it will be at my house. I love it! It makes me feel so special! It is an amazing feeling that everyone feels welcome and at home in my house. To me, the more people, the better. Having a full house is so satisfying to me. I tend to make enough food to feed an army, so having a lot of mouths to feeds is great. And if there are leftover, I send food home with everyone! Having a full house and yummy food...what more could you ask for?? I'm so lucky to have such great friends!
Speaking of yummy food....I made stuffed peppers for the first time last night! They turned out really good for my first try! I didn't really have a recipe, so I looked online and found a few that sounded good. I didn't use just one recipe, I took a little bit from each. Here is the recipe I came up with (be forewarned, I didn't use exact measurements of the spices and such, I added to taste):
Stuffed Green Peppers
5 Green Peppers (I had purchased 6, but only 5 fit in my crock pot)
1 1/2lbs of ground turkey
1 cup cooked brown rice
chopped onions
garlic
salt
pepper
oregano
basil
parsley
cheese (I used a shredded Italian mix)
1 jar of pasta sauce
tomato juice
Cut the tops off the peppers (I used a little of the top chopped up in the meat mix and saved the rest for another meal) and clean out the inside. In a bowl, I mixed the turkey, rice, onions, cheese and all of the spices to taste. Fill the peppers with the turkey mix. I LOVE the crock pot liners and almost never cook without them, so I lined my crock pot and put the stuffed peppers in. In a small bowl, I mixed the jar of pasta sauce and a little tomato juice as well as some of all of the spices. I poured it over the peppers, topped it with a little bit of cheese and cooked it on the 6 hour setting (one setting below the highest) and cooked them for 4-5 hours.
They turned out really well...I definitely found I needed a little more salt (I'm notorious for under salting) and the sauce was runny (the tomato juice), but I liked it runnier so that didn't bother me.
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