Steak, Chipotle Sweet Potatoes, Stuffed Bell Peppers and Salad with Pumpernickel Croutons

First off, I don't have a recipe for the steak. I let my husband make the steak. And, we like our steak very plain. Just a simple marinade and grill it off.

I love this sweet potato recipe. My husband hates sweet potatoes and this is the only way we can eat them. My husband actually loves this recipe.

Chipotle Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

• 3 large sweet potatoes (about 2-1/2 pounds), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 cup balsamic vinaigrette, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/3 cup minced fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced

Directions

• Place sweet potatoes in two cookie sheets. Drizzle with 1/2 cup vinaigrette and sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat.
• Bake at 400° for 25-30 minutes or until tender, stirring once. Cool slightly; transfer to a large bowl.
• In a small bowl, whisk the remaining vinaigrette, cilantro, honey and peppers. Pour over potatoes and gently stir to coat.

My family is on a tight budget and therefore, to save money I do not put the cilantro in it. That is how the original recipe states to do it so I wanted to leave it as it is. Usually, I use a bottled balsamic vinaigrette but I tried my own recipe tonight.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup olive oil

Directions

Beat the vinegar in a bowl with the sugar, garlic, salt and pepper until sugar and salt dissolves. Then beat in the oil by droplets, whisking constantly. (Or place all the ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake to combine.) Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Toss a few tablespoons of the dressing with the salad mix and desired salad ingredients, top with blue cheese and serve immediately.

If not using dressing right away, cover and refrigerate, whisking or shaking again before use.

There were some pros and cons to making our own vinaigrette. First off, it tasted better than the bottled version. I also tripled this recipe so I would have enough for the potatoes and our salad. A negative was it was thinner than the bottled version and therefore didn't stick to the sweet potatoes as well. I am sure if you make it the night before it would thicken up and you wouldn't have this problem.

I spent a lot of time googling for the best stuffed bell pepper recipe I could find. I was unable to find one that suited my tastes. All of them didn't really have what I wanted. So, we made our own.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

• 1 tube of Chorizo
• 1 yellow onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 cups of cooked rice
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce
• 3 tbsp chopped black olives
• 4 bell peppers

Cook the chorizo, onion and garlic in a pan until the chorizo is done. (The onion will finish cooking in the pepper)





In a large bowl, mix together the cooked rice, a jar of spaghetti sauce, and the chopped black olives. (We used a spicy spaghetti sauce.)



After, the chorizo is cooked mix it all together.
Cut the bell peppers open wide and remove the stem and inside of the bell pepper. Stuff them with the filling and put them in a 8x8 glass baking dish.



Bake at 425 degrees for about thirty minutes. Check doneness with a fork near end of cooking time.



We made a simple salad with mixed greens. We use pretty normal (aka boring) ingredients for our salad. Tomatoes, baby bella mushrooms, cucumbers and onions. This time we made pumpernickel croutons.



Pumpernickel Bread Croutons

• 1 Loaf of Pumpernickel Bread
• Oil for frying
• Sea Salt

Cut the bread into 1 in. cubes.
We have a deep fryer like a Fry Daddy that we fried them in.
Put a handful of cubes into the hot oil. Let them fry for about a minute. Enough to be crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.
After, they are are done sprinkle with sea salt.



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