Grilled Stuffed Jalapeños

Hey folks!

One of my favorite cookbooks is a 30 Minute Meals Cooking Light cookbook.  It was the first one I ever bought and has the best light dishes I've found as a whole in a cookbook.  I am subscribing to the magazine now!  I picked one up last weekend and found a bunch of recipes that include vegetables I'm growing in my new garden. 

Jalapeños are one of the vegetables I've included in my urban garden but I'm not really sure what to do with them.  I don't particularly enjoy having my eyes water, throat burn, or choking on unnecessarily spicy foods.  The reason I love food is because it tastes good.  I want to enjoy the cheesy queso dip, not sweat to death while eating it because there are habanero peppers in it. 

MMMMM Queso!

OK... back on track...

My Cooking Light magazine (July 2011 issue) has a recipe for Grilled Stuffed Jalapeños.  I originally wanted to make this so I could use more than one pepper at a time from my garden.  They are coming up very quickly.

I made the stuffing first.  2 slices of crumbled bacon, 1/2 cup of cream cheese, 1/2 cup fat-free cream cheese, 1/4 cup of shredded sharp cheddar, 1/4 cup minced green onions, 1 tsp lime juice, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 small garlic clove.

That was easy!  Ok, next step, slice 14 peppers, halve them length-wise and seed them. 

That bit was more physically challenging for me.  Cutting and seeding Jalapeños makes your throat burn - kind of like how slicing onions affects your eyes.  BEWARE.  Also, I sliced off the tops of the peppers rendering them ineffective at holding anything "inside".  Especially a melty cheese mix, which if you have been paying attention, goes in these suckers.

In the months I've been cooking I've come up with one great idea.  For stuffing the peppers I decided to put the cheese mix in a zip lock bag and cut a hole in the corner to squeeze the stuffing out.  I stuffed them like I would ice a cupcake!  Brilliant.  Feel free to steal that idea.  I'm starting to visualize the consequences of my actions.  I thought ahead about what kind of disaster I would create trying to "spoon" the cheese mixture in the pepper.  The mental image wasn't pretty and involved a mop, tears, and a cheese covered spoon stuck to the wall.  See?  I'm learning.

It's time to grill!! I know you might be worried about me being around an open flame, but I did just fine.

I put them on the grill about 5-8 minutes and they blackened on the bottom and the cheese browned a bit.  Some cheese slid off the peppers that could not contain it due to my overeagerness with the kitchen knife.  That cheese didn't brown.  It caked onto the bottom of the grill.

I figured these would be insanely spicy and I would hate them.  I actually really really liked these!  They are spicy but not overwhelmingly so.  You could taste the cheese and the sting from the spice went away quickly.  Seriously, these were so good. 

Please try these and let me know how it goes!! Gracias!