I love to add a little spice to my life, heat things up a bit, especially when it comes to the tongue! Poblanos Chiles are one of those delightful peppers that pack a punch while imparting a rich smokey taste that makes you want to eat the entire pan of whatever you have made with them - trust me, I had to stop myself after the first pepper!.

When thinking about heat, I often forget about this delightful pepper, especially since I have a ton of jalapenos still in the freezer from my summer CSA. However, yesterday I ran into my local farmers market to grab some apples and wandered over to the discount rack. Now if you are like me, you love a good bargain and you love vegetables! Eggplants that need to be baked in the next day, limes that need to be juiced, or peppers that need to be roasted right away do not daunt me, especially when a whole bag is 75 cents! Well lo and behold, they had a 75 cent bag of poblano peppers that were begging to be roasted and stuffed and I just couldn't resist. Now if I had been thinking straight I would have grabbed a lime and some cilantro to add to my dish but I was overwhelmed by this amazing deal and didn't think of it until mid preparation.

Poblanos are great because they are easy to stuff, in reality you could put anything inside of them and they would taste divine. This recipe stuffed these beauties with quinoa, onion, garlic, yellow peppers, corn, tomatoes, black beans, and goat cheese. The goat cheese is an awesome addition as it provides a cool, creamy, tang to counteract the heat.

After roasting the peppers and preparing the filling, I decided to place the peppers into a salsa style fire roasted tomato and bake it for 20 more minutes in order to blend all of the ingredients together, however, you could definitely skip this step if you are short on time or famished. I hope that you enjoy!

Roasted Poblanos stuffed with Quinoa, Corn, Black Beans, Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

3 Poblano Peppers, roasted with skins and seeds removed

1 cup Quinoa

2 cups Water

2 tbs Olive Oil

1 medium Onion, chopped

2 cloves Garlic, chopped

2 small yellow peppers, chopped

1 cup Black Beans

1 cup Corn

2 Roma Tomatoes, chopped

1 tbs Cumin

1 Tbs Chili Powder

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt to taste

4 oz Goat Cheese, Crumbled

1 can Salsa Style Fire Roasted Tomatoes

Turn the oven on Broil to preheat. Place the poblanos on a baking sheet and broil, turning every few minutes until the skins are blackened, about 10 minutes. Place in a brown paper or plastic bag for 5 minutes to steam. Preheat the over to 350 degrees.

Meanwhile, bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce to medium low and simmer for about 15 minutes or until all of the water is absorbed. Put aside.

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium high heat until glistening, add the onion, peppers, and garlic cooking until softened. Add the corn, beans, and tomatoes, stirring until heated through. Add the spices to the pan cooking for 1 minute more until fragrant. Add in the quinoa and stir to combine.

Taking the peppers out of the bag, run them under cold water to remove the skins. make a slice down one side with a sharp knife and remove the seeds. Try to keep the stem intact for easier stuffing.

Open the can of salsa style fire roasted tomatoes and place into a small baking dish.

Add 3 oz of the goat cheese to the quinoa and vegetables, stirring to combine. Carefully stuff the peppers with the quinoa mixture, placing them into the fire roasted tomatoes. Sprinkle with the remaining goat cheese and bake for 20 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling. Enjoy and healthy eating!

Everyone deserves a little treat and what better treat is there than cool, creamy custard?Personally I love ice cream, every single flavor, well except plain vanilla - it's just so vanilla! Trust me when I say that I have tasted them all. My first job at 14 was scooping ice cream at a little pink parlor called Yasgurs Farm, wearing tie dye everyday and building up serious forearm muscles. I did that until I was 17, making minimum wage and enjoying the endless variety of flavors that came our way.

A few tips, peach yogurt is awesome when you dip pretzels in it, blue smurf turns your mouth blue, so don't eat it if you don't want evidence, rum raisin has a really strange consistency, what a weird flavor, sprinkles are great on everything, and pickles and ice cream is actually really good!

Now that I have declared my love for this creamy confection its time to confess that as I have become a little older and perhaps wiser, ice cream can on occasion be a little too sweet and sugary and can contain a little too much dairy but not to worry! Nice Cream has the very same consistency, a fraction of the calories and fat, only natural sugar and absolutely no dairy!

You might be saying, well what is Nice Cream? Nice cream is simple a single ingredient, Frozen Bananas! All that you do is take some frozen bananas, place them in a food processor or blender and process for five minutes until the consistency of soft serve develops. Then you can toss in a variety of mix-ins, enjoy as is or place it back in the freezer for the famous hard ice cream scoop.

This awesome flavor is based on the Almond Joy and has coconut mixed in along with dark chocolate cover almonds and oh boy was it delicious! So instead of using up those ripe bananas in bread, freeze them and try some Nice Cream!

Dark Chocolate, Almond and Coconut (Almond Joy Nice Cream

Makes 1 pint

4 Frozen Bananas

1/2 cup Coconut (I used Desiccated Unsweetened Coconut)

1/2 cup Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds, chopped

1/4 cup Dark Chocolate, Chopped

1/4 cup Raw Almonds, Chopped

In a food processor or blender (a food processor works better for this but a blender will do) add the frozen bananas. Process for about 5 minutes. The bananas will go through a variety of stages. They will first look crumbly, then like oatmeal, then slightly gooey but chunky and then will finally start to look like soft serve. Keep scraping down the bananas until they get to the soft serve consistency. At that point add in your mix-ins and pulse to combine.

You can enjoy at this point if you like a soft ice cream or you can place in an airtight container and freeze until hardened into regular ice cream consistency. Scoop and Enjoy this healthy frozen treat! You could even eat nice cream for breakfast topped with chopped fruit if you wanted to.