Stuffed Roasted Red Peppers

Here's a delicious variation on the stuffed pepper theme. Instead of fresh bell pepper, I used roasted red peppers, organic of course. And instead of starchy rice, I used a mix of chopped mushroom and zucchini. The result is a yummy low-carb version of a favorite side dish.

The peppers conveniently come from a jar, making this a very quick and easy dish. I served it with fish, but it will pair well with anything.

For the stuffing, coarsely chop about a half pint of fresh mushrooms (I prefer crimini, but any type will work), one large or two small zucchini, and a clove or two of fresh garlic. If you like onion, you can add some for extra flavor. Pulse together in a food processor until the mixture is finely diced and add a little sea salt and pepper to taste.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set the oven for 350 F. Open each pepper, lay it flat and spoon in a quarter to a half cup of filling, top with grated mozarella or jack cheese, and fold the pepper around the filling. You can sprinkle a little extra cheese on top if you like.

Bake the peppers in the oven about 20 or 25 minutes until the cheese is melted.

If you happen to be intolerant to milk products, this turns out well without the cheese also-- except there is nothing to bind it...you may want to secure the pepper with a toothpick to keep it from falling open during the baking process.

Red peppers are high in vitamin C. If you're very industrious, you can roast them yourself. I'm not that industrious, so I buy mine in a jar, already roasted (#3 in the HuffPost taste test!). I usually keep a jar or two in the pantry because these little gems are so versatile, you can add them to nearly any dish for a little extra zing. Zucchini is low in calories, high in fiber, and a good source of vitamin A and potassium. Mushrooms contain powerful antioxidants that protect against free radicals and bolster immunity. They also contain natural antibiotics that inhibit microbial and other fungal infections.

Remember, cooking isn't about following a recipe-- it's about eating what you like. So use your imagination. Spice it up and substitute wherever necessary...just keep it natural and as organic as possible for the best nutritional quality.

Mystery Mash

Surprise your family with an absolutely delicious alternative to mashed potatoes. Here's a recipe for a beautiful and tasty vegetable dish that your family is bound to love. For best results you will need a food processor.  But if you don't have one, then I would recommend using a good hand masher or pushing the finished product through a potato press before whipping with a regular mixer. And it goes without saying (but I will say it anyway), always choose fresh organic produce for the healthiest end product.

This recipe will feed two or three, but is easily expandable.

Ingredients:

• 1 Golden beet
• 1 Turnip
• 1 Rutabaga
• 1 Potato (Russet will give best consistency)
• Garlic, one or two cloves, pealed and quartered
• Fresh parsley, about a tablespoon finely chopped 
• Butter ("Pasture" butter from grass-fed cows), about 1/2 stick
• Salt & Pepper (to taste)

Instructions:

Vegetables should be approximately equal in size. For a larger number of people, increase the quantity of vegetables in roughly equal proportions. Peel and dice each of the root vegetables into about one-inch chunks and set in separate bowls of filtered cold water until ready to add to the pot. Fill a medium (2 quart) stainless steel pot about half full of water and bring to a boil over a medium heat. When water is boiling, start the beet and garlic first and boil for ten minutes. Use a timer - you don't want to overcook. At the end of ten minutes, add the turnip and rutabaga and boil another five minutes. Then add the potato and cook a further ten minutes (25 minutes in all). Drain the water off and transfer to your food processor. Add the butter and parsley and process until all the chunks are broken down but there is still some body (a minute or so).

Serve hot!

Dare to be different! Feel free to mix up the vegetables based on what's in season. You may want to include a parsnip or even a carrot in place of the rutabaga or turnip. The more variety you include, the less like any one vegetable the mash with taste. I have also traded out the russet potato for a sweet potato. It tastes good, but the texture is a little sloppier. If you prefer a milder mash, add more potato. Bear in mind that cooking times vary for different vegetables, so plan the order in which you add them to the pot accordingly.

Whatever you choose, you can't go wrong. Root vegetables are loaded with vitamins - particularly vitamins A and C - minerals and fiber.

A few DO NOTs...
Do not use margarine in place of butter. Margarine is loaded with transfats and made from tortured vegetable oil. Be kind to your body and stick with the real thing!
Do not overcook (especially the potatoes) -- the end product will be watery and mealy.
Do not tell your children what's in it until after they taste it and tell you how delicious it is (maybe your husband, either!)


This post is part of Real Food Wednesday blog carnival.

Zen through a Christian Lens

For a while, now, I have been interested in Zen. Shocking? Sacrilege? Heresy? (Ooo...I hope not!)

Mostly, I've been surprised at how similar Zen principles are to Christian principles. But, then, I'm looking at Zen through a filtered lens - the lens of a Christian perspective. Like Christianity, Zen is a lifestyle. It is the practical application of principles based on a philosophy that defines one's understanding of life and reality. About now you're probably wondering how two completely opposite philosophies can produce a similar practical application. That, my friend, was what surprised me!

Granted, I know a lot about Christianity, having studied it pretty much my whole life, but very little about Zen. In all honesty, before writing this post, the only thing I knew about Zen came from two sources-- "Life," that TV show starring Damian Lewis about an L.A.P.D. cop who turns to Zen as a coping strategy to get him through an unjust incarceration; and Leo Babauta, author of (among others) The Power of Less (which I read last year), and blogger of "Zen Habits," to which I subscribe for regular emails (and include in the sidebar of my own blog).

For the sake of a serious discussion, we'll disregard the TV show.

Since I decided to produce an actual post about Zen, I thought it might be prudent to check it out a little further. In doing so, I discovered that Zen can be complex as well as fairly simple, depending on who's describing it. In the complex version, Zen is metaphysical-- beyond the mind. An excerpt from OSHO.com puts it this way:

"Zen is the process of going above the mind, far away from the mind; it is the process of transcendence, of surpassing the mind. You cannot understand it by the mind, mind has no function in it."

I will have to assume that this transcendence regards the spirit. Even still, in order to be a complete person, we must not only satisfy the spirit but also the mind. Christianity does not separate the mind or body from the spirit, but engages the whole person. A Zen that doesn't make sense to the mind cannot satisfy the whole person.

A simpler understanding of Zen is a philosophy based on "The Four Noble Principles" (as formulated by Buddha) and "The Eightfold Path."

The four principles are these:

Life is suffering
Suffering is caused by desire
We must stop the desires
Desires can be stopped by following the ‘Eightfold Path’

Apparently, Buddha was a pessimist! But in his defense, it's possible that life was a lot harder in his day than it is in modern America. 

But let's get the Biblical view-- is Buddha right? Solomon (the wisest man of his day - perhaps of all time) said this: 

"I, the teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted... I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief." Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

Not only that, but the letters of Paul and the the Apostles talked a lot about suffering. So, even though you or I may not be suffering at the moment, "life is suffering" is a fair statement to make.

What about the next one, "suffering is caused by desire." True? 

"When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." James 1:13-15

Looks like Mr. Buddha got that one right too. Where the philosophy breaks from Christianity is in the next two principles. Buddha says we must stop the desires by following the "eightfold path." The Bible says,

"I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me...What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God --through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:18-25

This confession was written by the Apostle Paul and sums up the general problem for all of us.

In Zen philosophy, we can stop the desires with the following:

• Right view
• Right intention
• Right speech
• Right action
• Right livelihood
• Right effort
• Right mindfulness
• Right concentration

In Christianity, the desires can be stopped only through Jesus Christ in a spiritual renewal referred to as the "new birth."

So, what about the "eightfold path?" Does it have value? 

Right view says we need to understand self and the world, be aware of our own actions and the reasons behind them. Zen says your "permanent self" is an illusion. The Bible says we are nothing outside of Christ. Our life is a vapor, or a blade of grass-- here today, gone tomorrow.

Right intention says your actions should benefit others, not just yourself. The Bible says, love your neighbor as yourself.

Right speech says, be careful with the things you say...they can make or break lives. The Bible says, don't let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Right action is, simply, don't do wrong. The Bible gives us the standard for right and wrong in the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus.

Right livelihood says be honest and don't make your living in harmful activities. The Bible says that we're to labor, doing good and useful things with our hands, so that we may have something to share with those in need.

Right effort is the driving force, without which nothing good can be accomplished.  The Bible says, whatever we do, we should do it "heartily," as to the Lord, and not unto men.

Right mindfulness says we should live in the moment, being aware of the present and putting little or no thought to the past or the future. The Bible says, don't worry about tomorrow...each day has enough trouble of its own.

Right concentration seeks to reach "one-pointedness of mind" through meditation. The Bible says, pray without ceasing... and to continually renew our mind so that we can test and recognize the "good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

The parallels are striking.  But scripture warns us, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." (Colossians 2:8) 

Truth, however, is truth. And we should not be surprised to find truth outside the boundaries of Christianity. After all, much of God's truth is self-evident -- it exists within His creation for all to see and discover, not just Christians. Even so, it's important to be able to sift the truth from the empty philosophy. With Zen, this would be the philosophy that mankind can somehow achieve goodness on its own without God. Scripture tells us that no matter how hard we try, we will always come up short because of our "fallen" nature.

"There is no one righteous, not even one: There is none that understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." Romans 3:10-12

Does that mean we may as well not even try to be good? On the contrary. The New Testament is devoted to instruction on living a good life in contradiction to our nature. Zen also understands the need for a right way of thinking and being, but it lacks the underpinnings to make that right way fully achievable. Those crucial underpinnings can be found only in the work of Jesus Christ. 

Can a Christian benefit from the practical application of Zen principles (like simplify your life, listen to people, never have debt, do the right thing, eat right, show up on time, don't lie, keep your commitments, and so on)? Sure, why not? As long as we remember that these principles are nothing more than tools to accomplish our ultimate purpose...to bring glory to God.

"For you are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (I Corinthians 6:20)