Festive Stuffed Peppers

One of the easiest things to do to incorporate healthier choices for you and your family is to use old time recipes and change them around a bit.  Here, I took the basic stuffed pepper recipe, changed a few ingredients, and there you go-a healthy dinner.  I swapped out the white rice for brown and took out the standard hamburger mixture and replaced it with beans.  That's all it took!!
These were a huge hit with my family...kids love when you decorate food and make it fun!!
Let me break it down a bit for you:
Since it is Halloween, I cut faces into the peppers which was much easier than carving a pumpkin!  I should have used orange peppers, but these are from my garden (yes, my wonderful garden is still giving me tons of produce:) and I didn't plant any orange....oh well
Most of you know that white rice is NOT healthy. White rice has been processed and stripped of it's nutrients so it has next to no nutritional content.  And since we are malnourished,  every bite we take should be full of vitamins and nutrients to keep us healthy.  We eat way too many empty, useless calories, so make your rice count...eat brown, black or wild rice.

As far as beans go, they are a great replacement for the meat in this recipe and many other recipes as well.  Remember, we all eat too much meat and not enough of FRESH, WHOLE foods so adding in whole foods wherever you can is a bonus to your health!
I used black beans in this recipe, but any kind will work (I asked my kids what ones they wanted and went with it)
Remember to try to soak your beans before you use them.  If you are using dry beans (not in a can) then you definitely have to soak them before using.  I suggest soaking them for 24 hrs or longer.  If using the canned beans, I still try to soak them for an hour or two.
 When you soak beans it helps with many things. It can help with digestion and absorption of nutrients especially if you eat lots of beans!!!  Beans have certain enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid that can sometimes cause bloating, gas, heartburn, reflux, etc. in certain people. Soaking can help relieve those issues.  Also, soaking can speed up cooking time and allows them to slowly absorb the liquid they need to cook evenly.  Lastly, soaking them is good because beans are dirty-just like all the other produce such as fruits and vegetables that come from the grocery store.  Dry beans go through a series of sifting processes and are not washed before you get them...so they should be cleaned.
Don't be afraid of beans, they are an excellent source of protein, fiber, complex carbohydrates, nutritionally dense, super filling, inexpensive, and versatile...there aren't too many foods that can fit this bill!!

Let's talk a bit about tomato sauce.  All most all of the tomato sauces purchased at a supermarket are high in sodium, really high, even if you buy  low-sodium.  So if you or someone in your family has hypertension then you need to beware of the sodium amounts on the labels.   Most of the sodium we get comes from packaged foods; not the extra salt we use to season our food in our plate.  So, read your labels; you will be shocked at how much sodium is added to our food.

As always, be creative and add extra goodness to your recipes.  Think of things your children like and then make it healthier:) 
By the way, I made a variety of balls/bars (previous blogs) and designed them into Halloween shapes for the kids.  They loved them and then wanted to do some of their own.  Kids love to be involved in cooking so have them join in and share in the fun!

"Know Your Food " series will be starting in the New Year. The wave of the future is in prevention and maintaining health and wellbeing. This series of workshops will educate and empower individuals to take control of their own health.  Knowledge is power...especially when it comes to health.  Come participate in learning about nutrition, increased energy, healthy eating, cooking, and preventing heart disease and other chronic illnesses.  Together, let's learn how to live a healthy, long life. 

Today, more than 95% of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise.”  ~Mike Adams

Shelly Clapprood, AADP CHC, is owner of Waves Of Wellness, Health Coaching.  She is passionate about educating people on food and its direct connection to health and nourishment or sickness and chronic disease.  She leads group programs and personal development sessions.

email:       wavesofwellnessHC@gmail.com

website:    wavesofwellnesshealthcoach.com