Intern Entrance Exam is done, stress rapidly decreased, and everybody is already thinking about Thanksgiving, a long weekend, time with friends, family and food!

Not being born and raised here, I don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving. I sometimes go to parties, eat some turkey, but it’s not the biggest holiday of the year for me. I still love Christmas, trees, snow, and some Romanian cabbage rolls that are never supposed to involve turkey meat. (Hope I’m not losing all my vegans readers at this point! 🙂

I know turkeys are supposed to be the best thing ever and everybody’s waiting for them the whole year. For everybody else that doesn’t go crazy about turkeys or got bored, I thought maybe you’d like some cooking ideas.

No, it’s not going to be Chinese cooking because I’m not really good at that, and no, it’s not going to be vegan, paleo, gluten free, etc. Even if it would be, I’m just tired of labeling every single item we eat.

If you still want to cook with turkey, but you need to be more economical and you don’t want to buy the whole turkey, go for stuffed red bell peppers.

Ingredients:

• Red bell peppers (I like to buy all colors),
• Ground turkey meat (organic if possible),
• Brown rice
• Carrots
• Onions
• Fresh parsley
• Fresh dill
• One jar peeled and crushed tomatoes (I always buy one without any added sugar or preservatives)
• Olive oil
• Black pepper and salt

Instructions:

1. Chop carrots, onions, fresh herbs and mix them with the rice, meat and spices.
2. Stuff each pepper about 2/3 so the rice has enough space to expand.
3. Put the peppers in a pot, cover them with the tomatoes and some water and cook them at low heat. They are ready when the rice is fully cooked.
4. If you want to skip the rice, just add an egg to the mixture. In Romania we serve them with a bit of olive oil, Greek yogurt or sour cream and fresh dill.

You can try the same recipe with any kind of meat, quinoa instead of rice, zucchinis or onions instead of bell peppers. The possibilities are endless and you can have all the fun you want in the kitchen.

If you’re done with the turkey and just dream about dessert, I’m not the one to say no but we can definitely find healthier choices.

Here’s one of my last cakes.

Bottom layer:

• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 cup macadamia nuts
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup dates

Top layer:

• 2/3 cup young coconut meat
• 1/2 cup coconut water
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1/4 cup your preferred sweetener (I used maple syrup grade B)
• 2 tsps. lemon juice
• 1/2 cup liquid coconut oil
• Seeds from one vanilla pod
• 2 cups frozen cherries

You can add a chocolate frosting if you want to make it even fancier. I was busy and just put it the freezer for an hour or two before serving it.

Happy Thanksgiving!