Stuffed Peppers

I've decided to start cooking again.

I love to cook...that's not the reason why I don't have homemade meals, ready for Ken, when he gets home everyday. My problem is more the planning and grocery shopping. I used to make a weekly menu and shop accordingly several times a week...but...I've just been too lazy. Plus, Ken has been working late a lot, we try to go to the gym after work, and we have had quite a few plans with friends that keep us away during dinner time. I know I just rattled off excuse after excuse...and it's time I put my big girl pants on and got busy in the kitchen.

To encourage myself to cook a few nights a week I am going to start sharing what we are eating on here!  Plus, a few people have asked for this recipe after seeing a picture I posted.

Tuesday for dinner I made stuffed peppers. I had a recipe printed and thought this would be a healthy dinner and something we had never had before. The problem is am not good at sticking to a recipe. I'm a picky eater and I usually only have half the ingredients the recipe calls for. So with that being said, I improvised on Tuesday.  Here is the original recipe is case you were wondering. And here is what I made.

 

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground turkey

1 cup long grain brown rice (I used Uncle Ben’s but any would work)

1 can black beans (drained & rinsed)

1 can corn (drained)

2 Jalapenos diced (this is optional-we just love spicy foods)

1 packet of Taco seasoning

¼ cup of shredded cheese (I used a 3 cheese Mexican blend)

8 large bell peppers

 

Preparation

Heat oven to 400 degrees

Dice jalapenos

Drain and rinse black beans and corn

Slice the top off of the bell peppers and clean out seeds (neat tip: slice a tiny piece off of the bottom of  the peppers will have a flat surface and can stand upright)

 
Cooking

Place ground turkey in skillet and cook on medium until brown.  Add taco seasoning to turkey meat.  In another pot cook rice according to package.  Once rice is completely cooked, add corn, black beans, jalapenos, seasoned ground turkey and mix together.  Fill each pepper with rice mixture (pack it down with a spoon) and place in a baking dish.  Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes. Add shredded cheese the last 5 minutes of baking.


This recipe makes a lot of the rice mixture.  I only made 3 stuffed peppers and put the rest of the mixture in a zip lock bag, in the freezer.  Now I can have this meal another time by thawing out the rice mixture. You could also take this recipe and add an Italian twist by using sausage, marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese!

Enjoy!