Southwest Stuffed Peppers

For me dinner should never be boring.  I love to constantly try new things and see what new creations I can come up with so that dinner is always exciting.  When you get stuck in a rut it can be more tempting to go for the easy pre-prepared items from the store as your source of exciting dinner choices.  But they are rarely economically priced for what you get and definitely not a healthy choice.  Challenging yourself to not get in a rut and try new things can be hard because we often think of new things as difficult.  But that is not always the way it is, there are hundreds of dishes out there that are new and exciting without being difficult to make. For my new inspiration for this dish I did a little research online, I was looking for a stuffed pepper recipe that already utilized many things that I had on hand.  I found the recipe at Midwestvegetarian.com, if you are a meat eater never be afraid of finding recipes from vegetarian sites. The dishes are often so full of flavor because they don't contain meat that they make even the pickiest carnivores happy.

Making the change to brown rice

Making permanent healthy changes to our diet can be a difficult task but with a little bit of experimenting it doesn't have to be a painful one. For the sake of our health my husband and I have tried really hard to make these changes and what we have discovered is that it doesn't have to be something that you struggle with. There are some wonderful healthy foods out there that make for wonderful substitutes to things that you already love.

Making the final switch to brown rice was very frustrating for me. It never seemed to cook right and I didn't think it always worked with my Asian or Indian dishes. I got myself to the point that I would have brown rice in the house but would use my white rice for certain dishes that I felt were not interchangeable with the new grain. Because I grew up in Asia, rice was just one of those integral ingredients of my life that I was just not wiling to sacrifice, so if it didn't taste right I didn't bother.  Then about two months ago my life change, while restocking my pantry I discovered at the store Brown Jasmine Rice and Brown Basmati Rice. And what a blessing that discovery has been. Because I think the change to healthy eating has to be enjoyable other wise you will never stick to it. Taste and texture are important in good food and one of the problems that I had with brown rice is would turn out chewy and watery. So I started doing more research into it and began to tweek the way I cooked it.  After many attempts I finally came up with a method that has become fail proof for myself.