Chicken & "Ricotta" Stuffed Banana Peppers - Surprise It's Dairy-Free!

I was equally inspired by Pam Pell's Stuffed Sweet Banana Peppers and by the fact that our local Giant is FINALLY carrying Tofutti's Better Than Ricotta Cheese.  Wait, Tofutti?  Does that mean it's faux tofu cheese?  Yes, yes it is.  But when you're in a household that's dairy-free for allergy reasons, then you leap for joy over a whole tub of faux cheese awesomeness.  So pretty much this whole week I'll just be looking for excuses to put this faux ricotta in everything (if I can find gluten-free lasagna noodles, I may pass out...and then bake a lasagna safe for the Mister & I).  While this recipe uses the faux cheese, by all means use real ricotta in your own.

Chicken & Better Than Ricotta Stuffed Banana Peppers

Ingredients:

6 sweet banana peppers, tops removed and peppers seeded

1 1/2 shredded, cooked chicken breasts (poached or use leftover rotisserie chicken)

1 cup Tofutti Better Than Ricotta Cheese (or regular ricotta)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp garlic, diced

1/2 tsp red chili flakes

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine chicken, ricotta, olive oil, garlic and spices in a bowl and mix thoroughly.  Stuff each banana pepper down to the ends with the filling and cap each pepper with the reserved top.  Secure with a toothpick if need be.  Repeat until all peppers are stuffed.

Place into a baking dish and drizzle a bit of olive oil over tops of stuffed peppers.  Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.  Prepare your tastebuds for awesome!

Herbed Curry Chicken Kebabs

So we've gone a bit overboard loading you up with veggies in the past two weeks of Crop Share.  What can I say, we just can't help ourselves.  But if you're like me, that means you've likely got a fridge full of peppers and squash from this week and last and you're wondering how on earth you're going to use it all up.  Well, when you've got a bounty of veggies and no grand ideas, then it's time to harpoon those suckers.  Okay, not with a real harpoon -- with kebab skewers!  So yesterday I whipped up this tasty dish and in the end still had way more veggies than chicken, so this will easily leave you with enough to make at least 4-5 vegetable-only kebabs.  Get ready to fire up the grill, or in my case, the grill pan!

Herbed Curry Chicken Kebabs

Ingredients:

1 onion, sliced

4 squash, cubed (yellow, zucchini or pattypan)

1 green bell pepper

3 sweet banana peppers, sliced

4 plum tomatoes, halved and quartered

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

For marinade:

1 cup olive oil

1 cup white balsamic vinegar

1 tsp dried tarragon

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp pineapple sage

2 tsp Dizzy Pig Bombay Curry-Ish (now in store!)

Combine all marinade ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Assemble kebabs on wooden skewers alternating between vegetables and chicken.  You'll have lots of leftover vegetables, so go ahead and make some vegetarian kebabs out of them.  They'll make great ready-made side dishes for the rest of the week.  Layer skewers in a baking dish and pour marinade over top.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, more is always better.

Pre-heat your stove top grill pan over medium high heat.  Lay out kebabs and grill for 20 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked, turning the kebabs regularly to sear all sides.

Serve with jasmine rice.

Stuffed Sweet Banana Peppers

Great things happen when Nalls Produce foodies get together for dinner.  Tonight the Mister & I dined with Miss Sue (one of our plant experts and our Education Outreach Coordinator) and her Mister, and it was a welcome chance to be on the receiving end of kitchen delights, rather than my usual post as head chef in our home.  Miss Sue whipped up an amazing fresh tomato salad with local red and yellow tomatoes topped with herbs, a fresh summer salad loaded with lots of local goodies like red bell peppers and cucumbers, herb grilled chicken, fingerling potatoes roasted with olive oil and rosemary, and fantastic local sweet corn on the cob.  It doesn't matter how long you work at Nalls or how long you've been a Crop Share member (my stats are 3 months and 10 months), you still find yourself surprised and enraptured by the local produce we get in our store.  So unlike our typical Thursday night of me cooking and blogging and the Mister conquering the world via computer games, we gathered around the table with friends who are quickly becoming more like family.  And isn't that what all of this food business is about at the end of the day?  Whether it's holiday dinners, joining a CSA, or just making pancakes on a Saturday morning, food isn't just about eating, it's about gathering together with others.  Sharing a meal can be like sharing your soul with another.  So tonight rather than spending my evening being largely in my own head, I decided to share a meal and my soul with others.  Thus this week's posts will be rather few, which just means the fewer posts you wind up reading, the more time you can spend around the table with your loved ones.

Now onto the food!

Earlier this week a customer posted on our Facebook page a great recipe she concocted using jalapenos.  While you're not receiving jalapenos this week, you are receiving sweet banana peppers (lots of them!) and they will work just as perfect for this recipe!  So enjoy this stuffed yumminess from Pam Pell's kitchen to yours...

Stuffed Sweet Banana Peppers

Ingredients:

7 sweet banana peppers (or 12 jalapenos), sliced in half lengthwise and seeded
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
14-24 slices of thick cut bacon


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place small pieces of chicken into each cut half of peppers.  Then wrap each with thick cut bacon and secure the bacon in place with a toothpick.

Bake on a baking sheet at 400 for 40 minutes.

As Pam said, "words cannot describe the yumminess."