Thank you guys for all the awesome feedback about my current running setback.  I’m hoping a week of rest will be just what I need!  You know what else I needed?  An entire afternoon of playing in my kitchen!  It was a beautiful sunny day – the type of day that makes me LOVE my kitchen!  Two sets of double doors wide open and letting all the sunshine in.  I set up my netbook on the counter and grooved out to GROOVESHARK while I cooked the day away…

Last week, Ashley made a whole bunch of homemade granolas and cereal mixes, including a few GLUTEN FREE ones, that I was dying to try for myself.  I stocked up on some new baking ingredients yesterday, so today I was ready to go.

Since I have a fun dinner recipe to share with you tonight, all of the baking details and photos will be posted tomorrow – stay tuned!  But just to give you a sneak peak, I made Ashley’s delicious quinoa cereal…

As well as my own chocolate molasses granola – YUM! 

I also made a HUGE mess – yikes!

Since my kitchen was a mess anyways, I decided to keep on cooking and get something ready for dinner.  At one point I was really tempted to just eat something lame like cereal for dinner, because making the effort to cook for just one person seemed like a hassle.  I reminded myself of how many single people cook for one ALL the time, and realized – why don’t I deserve a nice home cooked meal on my own?  I am actually proud to say that I cooked a full dinner for myself every night that Casey was gone.  Girl power!  :)  (And he is totally jealous!)

Tonight, I was in the mood for MILLET.  What’s that, you say?  No worries – I have another entire post already typed up and ready for you, just waiting to share the beauty of this little grain on the blog.  I’m actually getting ready to launch a couple of “series posts” – one of them being Great Grains.  I think that sometimes I take for granted what I have learned in culinary school, and I’m hoping to start sharing a lot more of my techniques, tips, and food knowledge on the blog.

So for now, a recipe… 

Black Bean and Millet Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients: (makes 4-5 stuffed peppers)

• 1 cup dry millet
• 3.5 cups water
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• pinch of salt to taste
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 4-5 bell peppers

To Prepare:  Millet is probably easiest to find a grocery that sells bulk food, like Whole Foods or Earth Fare.  It is worth searching for, and truly unlike anything else.  Start with one cup of dry millet…

And toss into a pot.

Add water, garlic, and spices and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, turn it down to a simmer, cover, and let it cook for 15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. 

In the meantime, Cut the lids off your peppers and scoop out the insides and seeds.  Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

When the millet is ready and the liquid is absorbed, stir in the black beans and tomatoes.

I scooped about 1 cup of filling into the pepper, and set it in the pan to bake.  I used my loaf pan because there was less room for the pepper to fall over.  (I just made one pepper since it’s just me tonight, and saved the leftover filling for later!)  The bread pan worked great – coated it in a little non-stick spray and added a few tbsp of water to the bottom so that the pepper didn’t burn. 

The pepper baked for 55 minutes, and in the meantime I took the doggies for a 2.5 mile walk.  By the time I got home, dinner was ready!

Believe it or not, this was my first time making stuffed peppers!  I’ve eaten them plenty of times, but never made them for myself.  It was actually really easy – you just have to plan ahead to do the cooking and wait an hour for dinner.  I had mine with a nice big salad – so colorful and delicious. 

Spinach, olives, baby bella mushrooms, red peppers,and  feta crumbles – all tossed in a splash of balsamic vinegar.

If you’ve never made stuffed peppers before (because they kind of look intimidating, don’t you think?) – do not be afraid.  These are EASY and fun!

Between my early morning meet up with Kath, and not one but TWO sunny afternoon walks with the pups, I ended up walking a little over 7 miles today.  It helped me get out a bit of the restlessness, especially knowing that tomorrow calls for rain, boooo.  The boys joined me for 4.5 of those miles, and they are hamming it up now on the couch, totally pathetic and exhausted.  Look at Huey with the head on the pillow and everything – so dramatic!

Off to join them on couch myself for some Saturday night trashy tv time.  Brunch with Kath and Diana tomorrow, and then Casey will be home!!  :)