Quinoa Stuffed Peppers Recipe

Hi, everyone! Joseph and I loved this dish so much the first time I made it that I thought I'd try it again and post the recipe. We were not disappointed the second time!

The inspiration for this recipe came from Brooke's recipe for stuffed bell peppers over at Cooked by Brooke. Check out her site!

I knew I wanted to make the recipe with quinoa, so I tweaked it a bit and made it my own. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

• 1lb ground meat of your choice (We use ground turkey, which is not pictured, because ground turkey in a plastic baggie isn't exactly photogenic.)
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa, which you will prepare according to the instructions on the package
• 1 cup black beans (We cook a couple of bags of dried black beans at a time in the crockpot and then freeze them to avoid the sodium.)
• 1 cup corn (I used frozen, because it's cheaper and doesn't contain sodium.)
• 1/3 cup reduced fat Mexican blend cheese (or cheese of your choice)
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained
• 6 bell peppers (I use green peppers because they're much cheaper than the pretty red and yellow ones.)
• 1-2 Tbsp taco seasoning (We make our own using this recipe.)

Note: Feel free to use rice instead of quinoa. I'm sure it would be delicious!

Rinse your peppers and lop of the tops of them, scooping out as much of the insides as possible. I didn't worry too much about getting out all of the seeds, because they come out during the boiling process.

Now it's time to multi-task. If you're not awesome at multi-tasking in the kitchen, you're in good company (mine). Because the final step of this recipe involves cooking the stuffed peppers in the oven, you don't have to worry too much if something gets cold. So dance it out for a minute and go for it.

You need to boil the peppers until they're tender. I did three at a time for 5 minutes, so a total of 10 minutes of pepper boiling.

You also need to cook the quinoa according to the package instructions. I did not add any extra seasoning or butter or anything to the quinoa, but you may enjoy that. If you do, let me know.

Meanwhile, you also need to brown your meat with the taco seasoning. If you use a skillet that's big enough to hold all the stuffing later, you (or your beloved) won't have to wash another dish. :O)

When you're just a few minutes shy of everything being done, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Once everything is finished, you need to mix the quinoa, seasoned meat, corn, black beans, and tomatoes together. Again, I do all of this in the skillet I used to brown the meat.

Once everything is combined well, stuff your peppers, which should fit nicely in a 9x13 baking dish (at least I think that's a 9x13 ...). Then sprinkle a little cheese on top if that's your thing. I may start leaving off the cheese. I don't think I'll miss it, and my hips will probably thank me for it. If you have extra stuffing, just put it in the dish around the peppers.

Now put the peppers into your preheated oven and bake them for 10 minutes or so, depending on how "done" your like your food. Husby and I disagree on what qualifies food as "done". I usually win, because he loves me.

Once you take your peppers out of the oven, photograph them on pretty plates. Just kidding. You don't have to do that part. You'll be hungry because they smell so good, so just eat them.