Two recipes to share this morning— I’ve been getting really good at making a batch of something to take for lunch for the week and planning my weekday dinners out on Sunday, too.

This week was a slam dunk. Not only are both of these recipes really easy, they’re super delicious, too.

Browsing Pinterest, I cam across this recipe:

http://prouditaliancook.blogspot.com/2011/07/balsamic-reduced-to-perfection.html

So easy to do, it doesn’t even really require a recipe, but I’ll give you one:

Super Easy Balsamic Chicken

1. Take 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts and put them in a plastic bag. Liberally coat with balsamic vinegar and let marinate for at least 4 hours.

2. Bake chicken at 350 for 30 minutes, or until done.

3. Assembly: Chicken, fresh basil (really worth buying the fresh leaves), slice of mozzarella and a couple of slices of tomato. Top with additional balsamic vinegar.

Done! So simple, yet it is a taste explosion in your mouth!

For the stuffed peppers, I modified a recipe I found off of Kalyn’s Kitchen. She’s got a lot of really great South Beach friendly recipes, but I’m still not comfortable eating rice with this diet. These took a little more time to prepare since there is some chopping/prepwork involved but in the grand scheme of things being able just to grab one of these in the morning and go was great this past week!

Stuffed Peppers

4 green bell peppers
1 lb lean ground beef
2 TBS olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 lb mushrooms, cut into small pieces
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Garlic Powder, Salt, Pepper to taste

To Assemble:

1. Brown beef and drain. Set aside.
2. Coat a frying pan with olive oil and brown onions. When onions begin to get translucent, add your mushrooms and cook until tender.
3. Combine veggies, beef and tomato sauce and let simmer for 5 minutes. Add seasonings to taste and parmesan cheese. Add 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
4. Take peppers and cut off tops. Scoop out the insides. You may need to level the pepper so it stands up straight in the baking dish- if so, just cut straight across the bottom.
5. Place peppers in a lightly greased baking dish. I used a small pyrex dish and the 4 peppers fit perfectly. Scoop the mixture into each pepper until they are full and lightly dust with remaining cheese.
6. Cover your peppers with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
7. Remove foil and cook for an additional 20 minutes.

Done! I estimated that each pepper was about 300 calories and chock full of veggies- a great way to fill up at lunch and to make sure you’re getting as many vegetables as possible throughout your day!

Off to menu plan for the coming week!