Good Eats: Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Sorry for the hiatus, ya'll.  This week has been packed with re-decorating J's office (post soon!) and cooking up some new favorites in the kitchen!!

Quinoa stuffed peppers....Well that was a mouthful... After spending a weekend of moving/packing/organizing (finally settling in here), both of our stomachs were tired of bad food (If I even see a McDonald's sign over the next couple of days I may shiver).... busy weekends = not much time in the kitchen to cook healthy meals.  So, we decided to kick-start this week with veggies and protein and get back on track with eating right!

I have seen quinoa everywhere.  I know it has been around for awhile, but lately it seems that everyone is swapping their rice portions for quinoa, so we needed to give it a shot too.  We both love bell peppers, so when I stumbled across this recipe, I knew I needed to try some rendition of it in the near future.



Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa, uncooked

2 cups water

1 can low-sodium black beans

1-2 carrots, finely chopped

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 can corn, rinsed and drained

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/8 tsp seasoning salt

salt & pepper to taste

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2-3/4 cup no salt added tomato sauce

3-4 bell peppers

1/2 cup part-skim shredded cheese

1/2 cup salsa

 

Assembly:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray medium casserole dish with cooking spray. Set aside

2. Cook quinoa in medium saucepan with 2 cups of water until done.  Set aside. (Make sure to pre-rinse your quinoa!)

3. In large saucepan, mix together the veggies and spices.  Cook over medium for around 15-20 minutes until the veggies are cooked through.

4. Stir in cooked quinoa and tomato sauce.  Add more sauce as needed.

5. Cut off tops of peppers and remove seeds.  Sprinkle parmesean cheese in the bottom.  Fill with quinoa mix. Top with more sprinkled cheese.

6. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes until the pepper is browned on the top and has softened.

7. Serve on scoop of salsa as base for extra kick!

 

We loved this dish! It was just spicy enough, and we had enough of the quinoa/veggie mix to freeze for future peppers!  I definitely think I will try it with some lean ground turkey next time, but this was fabulous for our "Meatless Mondays" habit!

 

 

Happy Eats, Ya'll