Bell Peppers!

Hi guys! This may seem like a silly post but I'm only 20 and my mom's idea of cooking dinner is taco bell or frozen lasagna so I haven't had much experience with various foods! I have my own kitchen now and am trying to be a college student who eats more than sandwiches and soup all the time! I recently bought this frozen vegetable mix that had red and yellow bell peppers in it (which I'd never had before) and I loved them! Whenever possible, I like to eat fresh food rather than frozen food and I was wondering, if I were to buy a bell pepper, how would I cook it? Also, since I'm not very experienced with different kinds of food, are there any other veggies or anything anyone thinks I should try since I've made this pepper discovery?? Haha. Oh and ALSO, when you buy fajitas at a restaurant and they give you that mix of grilled onions and peppers, what kind of peppers are those? And can I just cook those on the stove like the onions? I'm just looking for some ideas! Any help would be fantabulous! Thanks so much!! :o)

Bell peppers are the same as the ones in fajitas and yes, you can just cook them like the onions.

Check some recipe sites. You can plug in your ingredients and it will put out recipes using those ingredients. There's quite a bit you can do with bell peppers. Try recipezaar.com (I think that's the correct site). 

Oh yes, bell peppers are quite scrumptious!  I use them in a lot of my recipes.  alibsam's idea is a good one- go out to web sites and look for ideas.  Also, you can plug into Calorie Count's search tool and look for recipes on here too.

With your new enthusiasm to thing vegetable, when you go to buy the bell peppers, see if anything else strikes your fancy in the produce department.  Some asparagus perhaps? 

Find a recipe for stuffed bell peppers. They're delicious! You cut them in half (from stem to bottom), put them on a cookie sheet with a bit of olive oil, and stuff 'em with yummy stuff, and bake them in the oven for a bit. I like cheese and Italian style breadcrumbs, cooked onions and mushrooms, or any other thing that's around. Its a good food for clean-out-the-fridge night.

I also put them on my sandwiches, cook them in stir fry, make fajitas (as you already mentioned), chop them and put them in salads, or just about anything where I want some colorful veggies.

I also really like asparagus. To make that, chop off the hard part of the ends (NOT the grassy looking things but the blunt end), and run over the stalk with a vegetable pealer. It doesn't have to be perfect. I put these on a cookie sheet, again with a little olive oil, some garlic, maybe butter if I'm not dieting, and lots of other veggies (potatoes are great for this). Cook them in the oven until they're tender. You can also do veggies in aluminum foil instead of the cookie sheet, or put them on the grill.

Veggies are also awesome for slow-cookers, which is good for college since you might not always have access to a full kitchen, or time to cook a meal. This way you can just stuff everything in the slow cooker (aka crock pot) and run to class, and dinner will be waiting when you get home.

Just search some recipes on the interent. And note that a lot of ingredients can be snuck out of the dining hall if you're on a budget .

If you have access to a grill, and time, then roast them.

Set the peppers on the grill so that the skin chars and blisters and turns black. Then, when they're blackened, put them in plastic bags, so that they steam. When theyve cooled down, take them out of the bags and peel the charred skin off.

The fleshy part that's left (cut out the inside seeds and stuff as well) is good by itself, or even better tossed with balsamic vinegar (and maybe some salt and pepper or olive oil).  That's good by itself or on a sandwich, or warm salad..

You've gotten lots of great advice for cooking the peppers, so I just wanted to say that I love raw bell peppers with hummus or some other sort of healthy dip!  I eat that in my lunch almost every day. :)  I just cut the peppers open, remove the seeds, and cut them into strips.  If you store them in an airtight container in the fridge, they'll keep for a week.

In case you aren't familiar with hummus, it is a creamy dip made from chick peas.  It's high in protein, low in fat (and the fat that it does have is the good kind) and a great snack when eaten in the proper portions.  You can usually find it around the deli section of your supermarket.  I thought it sounded disgusting when I first heard of it, but I'm so glad I gave it a try.  They make a roasted red pepper flavor that's wonderful, but I like every flavor I've tried so far. 

So in addition to cooking your peppers, save at least one and try it raw!

Bell peppers are great in everything:

To prepare cut around the stalk in a circle and pull the stalk out. Cut the rest vertically in half and pull all the white and seeds out then wash it. Then you can eat it raw in salad, or with dips  or cook it. I like this recipe:

Roasted Veg

high oven -220C 400F

Add the peppers chopped into big chunks with chopped up onions in wedges, to an oven or casserole dish - then what ever else you fancy

I like courgette (zuccini?), aubergine (eggplant) and butternut squash but, experiment it's all good.

Add to the oven dish so all the chuncks are about 1.5 inches square and put a little olive oil on and a tiny bit of salt and a garlic clove whole (don't eat this but it flavours it)

Stir it every 15mins until it's all cooked (45mins - 1hr)

It's great with grilled chicken and salsa in fajitas and a little guacamole is full of good fats so can totaly be justified.

Cooking from scratch should be fun so find recipies on line or buy a book and don't be afraid to go wrong.

Here are some veggies that I love:

zucchini - I love to slice it, toss with a little olive oil, salt, & pepper and roast at 350 until they are light brown.  I seriously eat 2 zucchini like this sometimes

cauliflower - you can eat this raw, roasted (like above), some people use it to make "mashed potatoes"

broccoli - there are so many thing you can do with broccoli, raw, steamed, in stir-fries

cucumber - this is usually eaten raw in salads, by itself, or as a substitue for crackers (you can put tuna salad, humus, dips, etc on it)

baby carrots - another vegetable that you can eat raw or cooked.  I actually like them raw with a little peanut butter for fat and protein.  Or you can eat them with any other kind of dip or just by themselves.  They are great cooked in stir-fries, stews or just chopped up in your salad

Those are some basic veggies to get you started.  There are tons of veggies and ways to cook them, so just google vegetables and you will find tons of stuff.

That's awesome that you are getting into cooking! I think it's one of the best things you can do for your body and your health -- you have complete control over ingredients and cooking methods, which will often lead to tastier, lower calorie meals. I think it would really help you get a good starter cookbook, like Mark Bittmans "How to Cook Everything" or "Joy of Cooking." They is instructional and will give you ideas on how to cook, well just about everything! I received Joy a couple christmases ago and love it, but I've heard great things about Bittman's book. They are both great resources for someone beginning their cooking journey. There is also a How to Cook Everything: Basics version if you don't want the whole shabang.

Other resources I'd  recommend to help you get started:

• "The Produce Bible: Essential Ingredient Information and More than 200 Recipes for Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs and Nuts" by Leanne Kitchen and Deborah Madison
• Myrecipes.com - the web site for Cooking Light magazine, has  tons of great/tasty recipes and they all have nutrition info included.

If you have any questions/want more ideas feel free to message me. Moving to fresh, homemade food is one of the best things you can do for your body -- congrats on taking the first step!

You can cut them up and roast them, grill them, steam them. You can also make stuffed peppers in the oven. Full them with your favorite things, turkey burger, brown rice, spices, onions, mushrooms, veggies and bake them. I also cook chicken and other food in the crock pot and cut them up with that. Stir fry or just raw. Peppers are excellent for you.

I put them on Pizza.  I make a whole wheat crust put some tomato sauce, a handful of reduced fat cheese and peppers (red, green, yellow or any combo of the 3) mushrooms, and sometimes reduced fat pepporoni.  FANTASTIC and so much cheaper than take-out or frozen and a lot healthier too.  My whole family love them!  We have it every Friday Night!

Thank you so much everyone!! I'm totally going to the grocery store today! I bought an onion the other day with no actual plan of when/how I would use it but I'm totally going to make fajitas! (I think.. haha) Regardless, I'm totally going to buy some bell peppers and try to cook them with my onion!

P.S. I probably won't use the whole onion, right? So if I have to put part of it in a plastic bag, does it go in the fridge or in the pantry? Hahha. I swear I'm not stupid, just culinarily challenged? :o)

Grilling vegetables is always a favorite of mine! I love grilled bell peppers, eggplant, asparagus, onions, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes.... You should totally try grilling some of these... all you have to do is rub them with some olive oil, salt and pepper... and if you're feeling extra "crazy" some herbs and spices like thyme, basil, oregano, garlic, chili powder, etc... Then throw them on the grill until charred - delicious! :) 

put it in the fridge. any cut up food will go  bad or dry out faster at room temperature. there is a reason why the outside layer of fruit and vegetables is called skin just like our skin - it is "protective".  If the pantry is cool and you will be using the rest of the onion within a day and you plan to cook it well, you will not have to worry about the onion going "bad". Experience will teach you if the onion is still OK or not. Slicing off the exposed dry cut part usually will mean the rest is all right. Usually when food goes "bad" it softens - If you want to bother cut off the bad (dried out) part and the area around it and you may be able to use the rest. You should taste (or smell) if in doubt - especially with a moldy spot -the moldy flavour can travel throughout the fruit or vegetable. no point in saving an "old" piece of salvageable vegetable as it may have lost enough vitamins and nutrients as it has aged to be worth eating for its nutrition. One reason frozen vegetables are considered "better"nutrition. Freezing stops the vegetable from aging further. As a result "fresh" vegetables at the store may be less fresh as in nutritious than frozen vegetable.

 you really sound like you  have never watched anyone cooking. do not worry,no one will consider you dumb if you explain to them your background. Some will be so "shocked" at you cruel misfortune they will delight and take pride in teaching you. Ask questions,you will never learn unless you ask. Do not worry- even cooks who know better sometimes get forgetful about been careful like forgetting to add a rising agent to cakes and then wonder why it seems so flat. (Mistakes happen and there is nothing like a mistake for a lesson to never be forgotten.)  Did that to pancakes once, it was not until the second very flat pancake when I realized I did not remember adding baking powder.  ( I make a very yummy banana pancakes using old bananas( brown spotted- that's when they are the sweetest) flour, egg, baking soda and oil (differs from the standard pancake mix by having no milk and sugar-the very ripe bananas substitute for the milk and sugar)  because there is always a different amount of bananas used, I'm always adjusting the ingredients to make for the easiest cooking ( too little flour it becomes very thin and crape like -I like it thicker ; too little egg and it falls apart when lifting the pancake to cook on the other side; just enough oil means I have a nonstick affect on the pan without my having to oil the pan between pancakes, etc)     

I LOVE bell peppers. This past week I made a sort of stir fry with them.

Heres what I did,

Slice one chicken breast into thin strips throw it in a large frying pan on medium heat.

While the chicken is cooking take 2tbsps of teriyaki sauce (I use kikkomans) and add one tbsp of corn starch (this thickens the sauce, if you're going to use a thicker sauce, like the VH brand you dont need to add the corn starch) Stir the sauce and starch together very well.

Cut up some broccoli (depending on how much you want to make, about 1/4 cup or so) and a bell pepper (whichever color you like) slice a carrot into thin rounds. and if you want you can add some snap peas, or snow peas, they're super yummy. Just pull the little string off the back of the peas, its kinda chewy and tough.

Once the chicken is cooked (10 minutes or so?) add the sauce mix to the pan, and toss the chicken in the sauce, then add all of the veggies and about 1/4 cup of water. keep stiring everything every 2 minutes or so until the veggies are tender, if you like them you could throw in a handfull of bean sprouts at the last minute.

this is good with rice, or noodles (whole wheat fettucini is good)

super healthy and fills you up. if you dont like carrots or broccoli you could subsitute for any other veggies you like.

if you like things a little spicy, add some chili garlic sauce in with the teriyaki. :)

anyways, I hope you give it a shot, its super good!