Continue reading »]]>  

Ok, so this is where I should come forward and admit something. I friggin love hot, spicy food. Whether its wasabi slathered on sushi, jerk chicken with scotch bonnets, four pepper chili, you name it, I am game. We have even found jellies made by the wonderful people of One Screw Loose that are made from habeñeros and ghost peppers; excellent products. Ok, so this will not be like that, but jalapeños are still in the league of hot peppers in my opinion.

Before going any further (starting to feel this post is going to have a lot of links in it), you should also check out daiya foods. If you have not had cheese since before you can remember, this is a great brand to get introduced to. I have only tried the shredded mozzarella so far (only one I have found local), and will definitely be making the trek to find their products in other places.

With that said, back to the peppers. I highly encourage wearing latex gloves (or non latex alternative if allergies deem necessary) whenever working with hot peppers, because the oils from the pepper can get on your hands and can transfer to other things you touch. I have known people to get oils from the peppers in their eyes, underneath fingernails, none if this feels good. So, gloves, yes, good.

Next pretty darn important thing; cleaning out the peppers. Jalapeños range anywhere from mild to moderate on the spectrum of heat (scoville units). I have tried to find good information on how to tell if a pepper is going to be hot, and there just isn’t any definitive data either way on this. Comes down to this, if you buy a jalapeño, it might be mild, and it might kick your butt, end of story. That said, a LOT of the heat is held in the seeds and veins insides of the pepper. We want to remove all seeds and remove everything on the inside there. If you want, you can keep some of the seeds to put in the mix to ensure that you get a lot of that heat; may the lord have mercy on your soul.

Next is our mix for stuffing the peppers. 3 ingredients; shredded cheese, Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese, and the sausage of your choice.

We have done them wrapped in bacon, as well as with sausage, both work just fine, and you could absolutely sub out the sausage with ground round meatless crumbles if desired.

Ingredients

About 6 Whole jalapeno peppers, halved, cleaned and seeded
1/3 Cup Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
1/2 Cup Daiya Mozzorella or Cheddar Shreds
1/2 Cup Cooked ground sausage of your choice

Steps

· Preheat oven to 375 F.
· If you took them off, put your gloves back on.
· Set halved peppers on cookie sheet.
· Mix other ingredients in medium bowl.
· Fill each pepper half with mixture.

· Bake for 30-35 minutes
Enjoy and repeat as needed.

Keep living the daydream!