Stuffed pepper and tomatoes - serves 2 for a light meal, or 2-4 as a side dish to poultry or meat.

1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, squashed
some fresh/dried chili (or cayenne pepper)
4 medium tomatoes
1 small red pepper, halved lengthwise
2 oz (or more) grated cheese
2 oz or more chopped cooked ham
1/4 glass of white wine mixed with 1 tsp flour
salt

Gently cook the onion, chili and garlic in oil and water until transparent. Sit the tomatoes upside down, cut a cap off, scoop the flesh out of the tomatoes with a knife and spoon, then add it to the onion, with the cheese, ham, flour and wine. Simmer it together, stirring and reducing to make a sauce, season to taste. Lightly salt the tomatoes and the pepper, fill them with the sauce, pop the "caps" back onto the tomatoes, then fit everything snugly into an oiled dish and oven-bake at around 180 for about 15 minutes, until pepper and tomatoes are cooked.
Serve drizzled with olive oil.

This was a nice lunch for two, and worked out at around 24 carbs per serving. To decrease the carbs, you could replace 1/2 the onion with more cheese and ham. The tomatoes would be nice topped with a slice of cheese before cooking. The flour keeps the sauce together and is only 1/2 tsp per person - about 1g carb each.

Approximate counts for 2 tomatoes and 1/2 pepper:

24 carbs
12 protein
24 fat
5 fiber
365 calories

This sounds REALLY good. I'm going to try it without the cheese once I can get to the store. Would make a delightful lunch!

Thanks. If you are not putting in the cheese, you won't need the flour - it's only needed to incorporate the cheese into the sauce. It won't be so tasty without the cheese though - to give the dish more flavour you could use a more robust meat instead of the ham: e.g. 4 oz or more of chopped (cooked) chorizo or smoked sausages. Use extra chili and add some mixed herbs, such as rosemary & oregano. With those strong flavours, you can leave out the wine, as it won't be needed. Use plenty of good olive oil when you serve it. Yummy - I am going to try it with the chorizo next time. My mouth is watering, lol.

The red pepper was particularly good. I am going to try doing 2 peppers and 2 tomatoes the next time. If the sauce doesn't taste so good with less tomato I'll just add some puree and a squirt of lemon juice. Make sure you don't use tinned tomatoes with added sugar as it will ruin the piquant flavour of the dish.

Just coming back to say that I tried it with chorizo and only two tomatoes.. but it wasn't all that great so I had to add extra (canned) tomatoes and some cream.

I cooked 8oz of chorizo, then cooked an onion with some chili, herbs, etc.. (I didn't add the alcohol or the flour). I scooped out the flesh of the two tomatoes and added that, but it wasn't very nice. So I added part of a tin of chopped tomatoes and some heavy cream, then simmered it to reduce it to a thick sauce, piled it into the two tomatoes and two red peppers, halved lengthwise, and baked it in the oven. It was very tasty, particularly with the peppers.. My boyfriend preferred the chorizo, but I preferred the cheese and ham. Unfortunately it still had the dairy in it, but maybe there's an alternative to dairy cream which would add the same richness to the sauce?

I just want to add to this that I've worked out a very nice recipe for stuffing peppers with chorizo.

This serves two:

1 tblsp oil
small onion
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 can tomatoes
2 chilis
2 chorizo sausages (4" long)
1 large red pepper (halved lengthwise)
2 or more tablespoons of cooked lentils, chopped cooked butter beans or other beans (2.5g carbs per tblsp)

Put 1tblsp of oil and some water into a pot and "fry" the onion, garlic and chilis, (all chopped) with 2 sliced chorizos. Once the onions are cooked, add 1/2 can of tomatoes and 2tblsp cooked brown lentils (or other beans). Add salt to taste, and cook it all together for a little while, then pile it into a red pepper, sliced lengthwise - extra filling can be saved and piled over the top when it's served. Cook in a medium oven for 15 minutes. I like it served with cheese and cream or yoghurt, but it's good on its own too.

Counts for 1/2 recipe:

19 carbs; 18 protein; 30 fat; 4 fibre; 414 calories

The red pepper and onion are both quite carby, but if you are able to eat higher carbs, then make it with a medium onion, an extra 1-2 tablespoons of lentils - (only 2.5g carbs per tblsp), and possibly an extra red pepper (10g carbs each).

I don't eat much ham, I'm getting so sodium sensistive. But the chorizo version sounds quite good! But I'll probably sub in some cauliflower instead of lentils, as I'm not at goal yet. I notice you're exactly at my current weight but I'm shooting for 140 goal, though I'd be happy to reach 150. Been stalled for over a year and really want to get to goal. We'll get there though. Thanks Kirsteen

I hope you enjoy the recipe. We love it now, and make it often. Use enough water so that the chili, garlic and chorizo aren't frying in the oil, because it changes the flavour.

I used brown lentils in the peppers, which are really good, and almost meaty. Lentils or other legumes/pulses are now a fairly staple feature of my current diet.. I have found them really useful for giving me more energy and controlling my appetite and blood sugar levels, as long as I limit them to fairly modest amounts - a tablespoon or a little more than that seems fine. 1oz cooked lentils has 5g of carbs, and and they aren't calorific, and if you don't have major problems with blood sugar levels, perhaps you could try them in the dish. They're very satisfying.

Re the weight-loss, we'll hopefully get there eventually. I amn't weighing at the moment. I am not trying desperately hard to lose weight right now - I'd prefer to lose a little, but am happy as long as I am not gaining. Sorry to hear that you've stalled, but I guess our bods can only lose for so long, then they want a rest from all the change. I hope things start rolling for you soon.

I took a look at your blog not so long ago, by the way. I really enjoyed reading over some of your recipes. Thanks very much for posting them.