Stuffed Bell Peppers

I love stuffed bell peppers.  The first time I ever had one was back in college.  You know, when you get so lazy to cook during finals and then just stock up on tv dinners from the grocery store.  Yeah, I've been there and done that.  So I fell in love with stuffed bell peppers when I had the first bite.  Soft bell peppers, with seasoned ground beef and rice...so good, so salty, so fattening and so addictive!  I was craving for some stuffed bell peppers the other day.  Now that I want to eat more healthy so I came up with a healthier version of stuffed bell peppers.  Low carb, low fat, higher in protein and fibers.  It sounds good, looks good, and tastes even better! 

Stuffed Bell Peppers
(1 serving ~ 295 calories each)

Ingredients:
1 large bell pepper (green, red, yellow, whatever you like)
1 fish fillet
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/4 red bell pepper, diced
2 tbsp yellow canned corn
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2-3 tbsp 2% Milk reduced fat mozzarella shredded cheese
1 egg white
salt and pepper to taste

optional: you may add mushrooms, carrots, rice, or use grounded beef/turkey instead.  This recipe is very versatile, you may change anyway you want it :)

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 400F.
2) Wash all the veggies, dice onion and red bell pepper, cut the green bell pepper in half vertically (my bell pepper was HUGE, so I cut it vertically but you may cut it horizontal and make it like a bowl), bring a pot of water to boil and blanch the bell pepper until soften.

3) Heat up a frying pan, spray it with cooking spray, saute onion, red bell pepper and corn.  Cook the fish fillet on the side and chop it up into pieces, add salt and pepper to taste, pour in tomato sauce.

4) Once the fish is cooked, you may transfer the stuffing into the green bell peppers.  I also put scrambled egg whites on top to add a little more protein.  Sprinkle cheese on top.  Bake for 10-15 minutes until cheese are melted.

Enjoy! 

Cocktail Buns

This is another Hong Kong classic bun.  I grew up with this bun, too.  When I was younger, I prefer cocktail bun rather than pineapple bun.  Born with a sweet tooth, I loved the sweet filling inside cocktail buns.  Pineapple buns, on the other hand, only has a sweet cookie topping which, in my opinion, wasn't as good as cocktail buns.  And the crust topping on the pineapple buns can make a mess when they fall apart while eating :p Now I'm all growth up, I actually love both of them!  Today I will post the recipe for cocktail bun as one of my friends requested it :) and I'll post the recipe for pineapple bun later.

Cocktail buns
(16 servings ~ 170 calories each)
recipe adapted from here
Ingredients:

For buns:
Basic white bread recipe

For filling:
1/4 softened butter
1/8 cup non-fat milk
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
8 tbsp dried coconut flakes
1 tsp custard powder

For Mexican topping: (I only used about half of this)
4 tbsp softened butter
5 tsp sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1) Prepare basic white dough with a bread machine
















2) After the dough cycle is completed, punch dough, then divide dough into 16 pieces and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rest for 15 minutes.

3) Prepare filling: cream softened butter with sugar in a bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy, stir in dry milk powder, flour and coconut until the mixture is smooth and well blended.  Add milk as necessary. 

4) Preheat oven to 375F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

5) Fill white bread dough with fillings, cover with plastic food wrap, let rise until double in size about 30-40 minutes.  When ready, bush with eggwash, sprinkle sesame seeds to garnish and pipe two lines of the Mexican topping on top of each bun. 

6) Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.