Funny how there are fashions in food. Things go in and out of style without our hardly noticing, until we try to remember how long it’s been since we’ve seen some staples of days gone by.
How long has it been, for instance, since you’ve had Swiss steak? (Remember Swiss steak?) Or stuffed green peppers? Or goulash, or beef stroganoff, or chicken paprikash? I miss them. Good comfort food all.
It’s good to see other dishes like this live on.- things like lasagna, which remains ubiquitous. Also alive and well are common British favourites like shepherds pie and rice pudding . You can even find a steak and kidney pie if you shop around. (The Brits love their comfort food, always have – and they are good at it too.)
Comfort food has, of course, undergone something of a revival. I’ve noticed those little recipe books at the supermarket check-out counter often seem to feature comfort food these days. I read them while I’m waiting for check-out and sometimes even buy them if the photos are persuasive enough. Same goes with the foodie magazines . They are often all about comfort food these days.
Wikipedia confirms it. Here is what they say: “Comfort food is food prepared traditionally that may have a nostalgic or sentimental appeal, or simply provide an easy-to-eat, easy-to-digest meal rich in calories, nutrients, or both. Comfort foods may be foods that have a nostalgic element either to an individual or a specific culture. One recent development .... is the advent of fine dining comfort food restaurants that feature more careful cooking and presentation, higher quality and fresh organic ingredients, along with consequently higher prices."
In other words, comfort food has become trendy, calories be damned.
But it can also be healthy. Believe it or not, because most people know I am a fan of all things unhealthy, I subscribe to a magazine called “Clean Eating”. (Bonus, the subscription price is less than $4 an issue.) That “Clean Eating” title, of course, hardly describes my diet in general, infused as it is with more chocolate, pastries and fried things than most people would admit to - but I have no shame. No, my treasured "Clean Eating" magazines arrive in the mail, full of gorgeous pictures of sickenly healthy-looking food that I would aspire to live on if I was more virtuous.
Occasionally a Clean Eating recipe inspires me to put on the proverbial apron. I’m featuring one such recipe here today. Iit's a good one, old-fashioned comfort food with a twist, a spin on the stuffed peppers you probably haven’t had in two decades.. This recipe is for Mexican Stuffed Peppers, which if you care about these things, have a measly 290 calories per serving.
The recipe also uses a slow cooker, a utensil for which I have developed, if not full mastery, at least the ability to turn out surprisingly tasty fare. Slow cookers are au courant too, if the supermarket checkout counter reading fare is any indication, so this dish scores double points for being comfort food AND prepared in the slow cooker. Triple points if you add in the nutrition factor.
My main criteria though is plain and simple; does it taste good? And this one does, extremely so, in fact. These Mexican Stuffed Peppers get the PositiveLite.com seal of approval for taste, plus ease of preparation and (begrudgingly) nutrition. The recipe (it serves six) also scores if you like to make up a batch to freeze what you don’t eat. (You will only need one of these per person, per meal)
MEXICAN STUFFED PEPPERS
Ingredients
- 1 large can chopped tomatoes
- 1½ cups chopped yellow onion, divided (or any onion you have
- 5 cloves of garlic (or minced equivalent) divided
- 3 tsp chilli powder, divided
- 3 tsp ground cumin, divided
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp salt, divided
- ¼ cup whole plus ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves divided
- 1lb extra lean ground beef
- 1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
- ½ cup frozen corner
- 1 can black beans
- ¾ cup low-fat Mexican blend cheese, divided
- 6 red green or yellow bell peppers, tops and seeds removed and discarded
1.In a blender process tomatoes, ½ cup onion, 2 whole garlic cloves, 2 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp cumin, oregano, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 cup whole cilantro until smooth. Pour ½ cup mixture in to 5-6 qt slow cooker and set remaining mixture aside.
2, In a large bowl, add beef, remaining 1 tsp chilli powder, 2 tsp cumin, ¼ tsp salt, black pepper and zucchini. With your hands, mix thoroughly until well combined. Add minced garlic, remaining 1 cup onion, jalapeno, corn, chopped cilantro, beans and ½ cup cheese; mix until well combined.
3. Pack beef mixture tightly into peppers, dividing evenl . Arrange peppers, cut side up , in slow cooker. Pour remaining tomato mixture over top. Cover and cook for six hours on low. Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup cheese on peppers and cook for a few more minutes, until cheese melts. Serve peppers with sauce, dividing evenly.
A final word: there are two other pluses about this dish. I don’t think I've ever had our house smell so good as when cooking this. Peppers have a distinctively pleasant smell while cooking. Secondly, the juice left over is extremely good – a soup made with similar ingredients, perhaps filled out with chicken broth, would I think be stunning.
"NO! THESE AREN'T OK!!!!!!!"
Yes, every small greasy spoon and hamburger joint here has its version of poutine that follows a pretty basic recipe: fries, gravy and some kind of cheese (curd if you're going to be authentic, grated if you're not). But you have to step over to the specialists if you are to appreciate the variety that can be poutine.
I recently discovered a new kid on the block, at least one that had recently opened a branch on a block more easily accessible to yours truly. 
Still further up the chain, an experiment by award-winning chef Martin Juneau of 
At this moment in time I feel very much trapped by where my life has taken me.
