From Thailand to Spain...

We're really spannin the globe this week, huh???  Last night we decided to try our hand at Spanish Stuffed Peppers.  And since the recipe clocked in at a "SHOCKING" (for RR) 60 MINUTES...I decided to speed up the process a bit by having Delores cook the chicken so it was ready when I got home:)  Instead of Ground Chicken, I used regular chicken breast and my little trick of the day was that I used the water (not oil) from this jar of Roasted Piquillo Peppers & about a half a cup of tomato sauce, salt, pepper and paprika and let it cook on low for 5 hours...

When I got home, the chicken broke apart with a fork and the added flavors made it taste even BETTER!  Scott had one bite and said he would have eaten the chicken just like that! :)  SUCCESS:)

The rest of the dish came together pretty easy....onions, garlic, tomato sauce, parsley, those chopped piquillo peppers, parsley and toasted walnuts (I know...but they gave a nice kick;)

All mixed with the rice made for a pretty hearty filling!

Another essential ingredient was this cheese I picked up from TJ's...

Yum!!  The Cotija has a milllllllllld flavor to it and then you get a huge salt KICK!!!!  And as a lover of salt (sorry, blood pressure association), this cheese was a winner:)

I filled up the hollowed red peppers part way and added a layer of Cotija...

And then MOUNDED the rest of the peppers with the rest of the chicken/rice mix and cheese...to the point that they peppers were nowhere to be seen;)

And a half hour in the toaster oven and these babies were ready to roll!  Not the prettiest little buggers...but they were pretty darn delicious!

And can you deny the fabulousness of ANYTHING with a hidden CHEESE layer???   I think not!

And after analyzing the dish, I realized that aside from the salty cheese....I had added barely ANY salt to the rest of the dish (aside from the shake or two in the chicken)...so that just speaks for how flavorful all of these ingredients were on their own!  (I think I just won back the Blood Pressure folks;)  We really enjoyed these...maybe a bit of work for a weeknight, but with the help of your own 'Delores', you can probably knock off an extra 15 minutes or so....any bit helps;)

And since I had so much to show you today (and since I'm still unsure of WHAT we're having for dinner tonight...but I have a feeling it's going to involve more freezer/pantry scavenging:)...I figured I'd save my most wonderful food 'news' of the week till tomorrow!  But here's a preview:

Stay Tuned;)