Amazing Stuffed Bell Peppers

We're back with another fabulous recipe! Thinking about these stuffed bell peppers makes my mouth water, they are that good. The recipe is from Dr. Oz's website, but I found it from a former co-worker's facebook page.

Ingredients: (This makes 4 servings (2 halves per person))

8 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers

2 Tbsp. canola or olive oil, divided

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1 Tbsp. cumin

16 oz. italian sausage

1 16 oz. jar salsa

2 c. spinach, chopped

1 c. cooked brown rice

1 c. cheddar cheese

2 large avocados, peeled and sliced

1/2 c. low-fat greek yogurt

1/4 c. chopped basil

Preheat oven to 375. Cut the peppers in half, lengthwise (removing stems). Remove the white stuff and seeds from the insides. Place peppers in a baking dish and drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil. Cover the dish with foil and bake the peppers 15-20 min or until they start to soften.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, salt, black pepper, chili powder, and cumin; cook until the vegetables are softened, about 3 minutes. Add the sausage to the skillet. Cook, breaking it up with a slotted spoon or potato masher, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the salsa and the spinach, and cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the cooked brown rice.

Carefully fill the pepper halves with the turkey mixture. Cover the dish with foil, and bake until the filling is hot and the peppers are tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove foil, and sprinkle the cheese over the top of the peppers. Return to oven; bake, uncovered, until cheese has melted, about 7 to 10 minutes. Top the peppers with a heaping tablespoon of the yogurt. Place slices of the avocado on top of each pepper. Sprinkle with the basil. Serve immediately.

Picture is from my old co-worker's facebook- although ours looked similar.

MMM so good!!!

grad school update!

Edwin updated everyone on school, so I thought I would board that train and add my two cents about grad school. I'm currently drinking an iced latte and watching the Today Show in my pajamas, which pretty much sums up how much I'm enjoying my new life. Before you judge me as a slug, let me promise you I am working very hard!!!

I have four classes this semester: Professional Issues & Ethics, Counseling Theories, Approaches to Intervention, and Measurement & Evaluation. I have each class once a week from 4:30-7:30. It's been an adjustment, since Edwin and I have opposite schedules now. My typical day starts by getting up with Edwin and making him breakfast for the road, and then going back to bed until 7-8ish. The workload was a bit light the first few weeks, so I had a lot of free time. It's picking up now, so my days are mostly filled with reading and studying.

I really enjoy what I'm learning and know I'm in the right place. My professor for Theories and Ethics (2 classes, same prof) is a Marriage and Family Therapist among other things. She shares a lot of stories from her work as a therapist that are really fascinating. My Approaches to Intervention class is really interesting as well. We are talking about prevention and our textbook told a story of a person sitting on the bank of a river, enjoying the day. He saw someone fall into the river, struggling to stay afloat. He dove in, rescued the person, and went back to sitting on the bank. Later, the same thing happened and he saved another person. After several successful rescues, an onlooker came over to the man and said, "Wouldn't it be easier if you just went to the beach over there and taught people to swim?" The point being that through prevention efforts you can reach a lot more people than through individual counseling. I thought that was really thought provoking... although I don't think you could possibly prevent everything that brings people to counseling. Freud would probably agree, since he thought all of your problems stem from issues with your parents during the first few years of life!

Beyond my classes, I've been working a few hours per week at the career center on campus as an Outreach Assistant. Basically I will give tours of the center and explain our services. Pretty simple! I'm enjoying myself so far and it's nice to learn about the workings of a career center, since that is what I am most interested in at this point.

My cohort has 14 people in it- 6 (including me) on the higher ed track and 8 on the school counseling track. We have people straight from undergrad, and I think the oldest is about 30. We have 2 guys and the rest are ladies. I'm enjoying getting to know everyone! We all went to lunch this past Tuesday and I think are going to make it a weekly thing.

Edwin is really, really appreciate of thoughts and prayers, so thanks for thinking of him!! It's almost the weekend :) On another note, we are going to assemble our wedding invitations this weekend (we are making them ourselves)! Woo hoo!!

Crock Pot Chili...LET'S MOVE ON!

Hello fellow readers, it's Edwin here! We decided it's been too long since our last update. A lot has been going on in our household since the Crock Pot Chili. I personally have not contributed to the blog for a while now, so I will do my best to catch you guys up, although I'm sure Chelsea has filled you guys in on details and such.

School is in full gear! We are entering our 4th week of the academic school year. 7th grade has been a really big challenge, much more than I expected. When I did my model lesson in June, the students were so well behaved despite it being the last day of school AND the fact that they lost their privilege of playing dodgeball with their friends (that should have been red flag #1). In retrospect, they were probably really well behaved because our principal and assistant principal were sitting in the class. It's been especially hard to teach content which I spend countless hours planning for. The chatter is constant and my redirections are not effective. My days are emotionally draining and there are times throughout the day when I feel like throwing my hands up in the air and giving up. Several times, myself and other 7th grade teachers have sort of lost control of the classroom and it is very frustrating. It's frustrating for the teacher and for the students who really want to learn (which is a lot). The stress has led to much anxiety both during and after school and has cut into my sleep a bit.

Lucky for me, however, the one thing that I have a lot of is support. I am so blessed to have a wonderful partner (Chelsea) whom I can depend on and wakes up with me EVERY SINGLE DAY! She doesn't have to, but she does (this is at 5 am folks!... She says to not give her too much credit because she goes back to bed). I have also found comfort in God and in Sunday sermons. Ted and our friend Chris (he's from Chicago but went to school in Madison) who is also a teacher at KIPP have been really supportive and encouraging. Finally, my administrators have been supportive. My assistant principal has sat in my lunch time class several times and continues to help me plan better lessons. Finally, our readers and my parents have been supportive with their words, thoughts, and prayers.

But hey, it's not all bad! My morning class and my last class of the day are actually quite pleasant. They're not perfect and I have 2 students with ADHD in that class, but they're a little more respectful and can stay on task 80% of the time which allows me to go around and help the students who struggle in math. I'm continuing to give 110% every day and will continue to do so for as long as I'm allowed to. I have faith that everything will turn out all right.

Finally, what would a post from Elementary Cooking be without mention of food! I have sporadically received emails from Adam asking whether we've eaten at several Austin restaurants that he's heard of. I am happy to announce that this past weekend (Labor Day Weekend) we went to The Salt Lick, which has been named one of the best BBQ places in America. We went to the original Salt Lick which is in Dripping Springs, TX (Southwest of Austin). It was a busy night full of live music. We waited about 15 minutes to be seated and ordered pretty quickly. They have brisket, turkey, sausage, chicken, and ribs to choose from. Chelsea had brisket and ribs and I had brisket, turkey, and ribs. It was all quite delicious and their BBQ sauce was interesting because it wasn't ketchup based. The brisket was really tender and their ribs were all right... We still think the ribs that Ted and I make are the best.

That's all for now folks. We're currently watching the Jets vs Cowboys game and getting ready for the week. Until next time friends!