The Adventures of Team Nelson: Labor Day weekend

Finally, a weekend where we were not packing, driving, moving in, flying or otherwise doing ANYTHING in particular! NICE! If you did not guess already, we had a very leisurely weekend filled with playing with the boys, swimming in our new pool and generally being lazy. Work and school begin again tomorrow, but for this weekend at least, we decided to put aside unpacking and have fun. On Saturday, we had a yummy breakfast of banana pancakes, sausage and lemon-poppy muffins. I will post the recipe for the muffins later as they are truly delicious! We spent the afternoon swimming in the pool and playing in the yard. On Sunday, we found a new church to try out, St. Luke's Catholic Church. We stayed in the back of the church in the family booth but found out that we had the 3 most well behaved kids in the fishbowl. We are going to try the church again since neither Ken nor I could really hear the priest over the din of loud children. After that we came home, had lunch and everyone (except Ken) took some very needed naps. The boys are all still adjusting to the time change, new sleeping arrangments and not having been with us for a few weeks so there are frequent awakenings at night. Will, of course, still needs to nurse at night but even he wakes up more than he had prior to moving out here. Ken and I are a bit bleary eyed these days from the night owls living in our house. Today was another pretty lazy day. We zipped up I-10 to the El Paso Outlet Mall to buy some running shoes and then to Sam's club where I bought some lovely red, yellow and orange peppers and thought I should use them in a dish tonight. I decided to make today "Bean night" and created a new vegetarian dish that you should try. Joe tried it and liked it too (Tom looked at but made no attempt to try it.) Here is the recipe (I did not measure everything so taste it and season to your liking)

Sunshine Stuffed Bell Peppers (makes 4 servings)

4 red, yellow or orange peppers (I used a mix of these)

1 cup cooked cous cous (leftovers from the other day)

3/4 c. diced tomatos (from the can)

1 cup northern white beans

6 oz mozzarella cheese

1/2 onion, diced

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper

bread crumbs

olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Heat a pan over medium heat and add about 1 tbsp olive oil. Chop up onions and garlic. Saute onions for a couple of minutes until they soften then add garlic. I tend to burn garlic if I don't add it in later, but you can add them together if you want. Place onion and garlic into food processor along with beans. Pulse until the beans are broken up and everything is mixed well. Place mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add cous cous, cheese, and cumin. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cut tops off of the peppers and scoop out seeds and ribs. Spoon filling into peppers. Sprinkle top of peppers lightly with bread crumbs and drizzle of olive oil. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until brown on top. Enjoy!