Scrumptious Saturday: Pretzel Bites & Stuffed Peppers

 One of the hubby's favorite baked items that I've ever made is pretzel bread.  I don't know why this stuff is so addicting but between him and I we could eat the whole batch!!  I found the recipe over at Two Peas And Their Pod, the direct link is here.  While the recipe is a bit time consuming, it is definitely worth the effort - the finished product is absolutely delicious!  This time, hubby helped me bake the pretzels and we decided to make half the recipe into the pretzel bites, and half of it into small loaves of pretzel bread.  The loaves of bread turned out really well and I especially like eating them with honey on top.  Hubby just likes the basics though, with no toppings on the bread.  You can also make some cheese sauce to dip the bites into, although I'm not a huge fan of any cheese sauce, homemade or not. 

My other cooking adventure this week was a stuffed red pepper.  Hubby works until 9:30pm some nights so instead of making a bigger dinner meal, I'll sometimes just make a smaller meal for myself.  I had two red peppers that I picked up from the public market, and since I've wanted to try making stuffed peppers for a while now, I figured just making one for myself would be a good place to start.  That way if it turned out awful, I didn't have to put the hubby through the agony of trying it  ;-)   Remember that crock pot pork shoulder  I made last week?  Well I still had some pork left over and it was a perfect addition to my stuffed pepper.  The stuffing consisted of rice, shredded pork, some garlic, Worcestershire sauce and cheddar cheese - all mixed together in no particular order.  All I had to do was cut the pepper in half, clean it out, then stuff it and bake it.  It baked in a greased 8"x9" baking dish at 350 degrees for about 40 - 45 minutes and it was perfectly done!  I loved the crispness of the pepper combined with the tangy pork and rice, and the cheese on top was a nice addition (at least I thought so, I mean I know not everyone is a cheese addict like I am!)  You could also make stuffing out of ground beef with rice and spices - and I'm sure there are many other variations out there on the Internet as well! 

Let me know if you try any of these recipes or if you have any others to share!!  

I'd love to know your thoughts!