Greek Style Stuffed Peppers & Minted Cucumber Salad

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Here are my HappyToBe@Home Day 1 dinner recipes. They will be posting about my kitchen beginning on Sunday. Be sure to catch me there!

Once a month, I buy 7-10 pounds of ground beef and brown it with onions, salt, pepper, and garlic. Then I freeze in 1 lb. portions. That is what I used for this recipe. I got my inspiration for the peppers from here and here. For the cucumbers, I took inspiration from basic tzatsiki sauce.













Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers

2 large Bell Peppers, halved, seeded, and membranes removed
1 lb lean ground beef, browned (or 1 1/2 lb raw ground beef)
1/4 c bulghur wheat, pre-soaked in 1/2 c boiling water for 1 hour
10 oz frozen chopped spinach thawed and water squeezed out
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 T fresh mint, chopped (or 1/2 t dried)
1 t dried oregano (or 2 T fresh)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 pint stewed tomatoes (or one 15 oz can)
crumbled feta cheese, to taste

Arrange peppers, cut side up, in a microwave AND oven-safe dish (I used pyrex).

Mix the ground beef, wheat, spinach, onion, egg, and spices in a separate bowl (you do not need to brown the ground beef if you are using raw, you will just increase your cooking time slightly).

Pile the stuffing inside the peppers (it's okay if some falls out), top with some canned tomato chunks and pour juice from tomatoes around the peppers. The juice will help cook the peppers. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 8-10 minutes for pre-cooked beef or 10-12 minutes for raw beef.

Remove plastic wrap carefully (watch for steam) and crumble feta on top of peppers. Place under broiler until feta browns slightly.


Minted Cucumber Salad

3 cucumbers, peeled and sliced into half moons
1 T salt
2 scallions, minced finely
2 T white wine vinegar
2 T olive oil
1 c plain yogurt, greek-style is the best!
1/2 t ground cumin
1/4 t turmeric
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 t black pepper

Place sliced cucumbers into a dish and cover with cold water and salt. Stir and let soak while preparing the yogurt sauce.

In your serving bowl, combine the remainder of ingredients.

Drain cucumbers thoroughly and do NOT rinse. Add to yogurt sauce and toss gently.