Stuffed Peppers

The stuffed peppers before baking:

Right before the freezing weather came last week, Ryan picked the rest of the peppers that were still producing in our garden. We didn't want them to freeze. Those pepper plants in our garden really produced a ton of peppers this year.

Stuff peppers are a great way to get a lot of veggies in a meal as well as make something that tastes wonderful. Try out this recipe and feel free to adjust the mixture! Get creative and pass along your ideas

Stuffed Peppers

Recipe adapted from Today I Ate

Will make 4 servings (one half of pepper for each person)

Ingredients:

• 2 bell peppers (use what you have on hand, or mix the colors up) - peppers should be halved and cleaned of seeds
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 - 8 oz package of button mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
• 2 - 3 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 - 10 oz package of chopped frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess water
• 1 1/2 cups fresh kale - stemmed and chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup greek feta, crumbled
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 - 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 3/4 lb italian spicy sausage - optional

Instructions:

Pre Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat olive oil at medium to medium-high heat and add onions. Once the onions begin to brown, add the garlic until it speaks (makes your house smell good!). Then add the mushrooms and saute for about 7 minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato sauce, spinach, kale, salt, pepper, paprika, red pepper flakes and cook for about 10 more minutes, stirring regularly. Remove from heat and stir in 3/4 of the feta. Place the pepper halves into a baking dish and stuff with the spinach mixture. Try to drain off the liquid before spooning the mixture into the peppers. Once the peppers are stuffed, top with the remaining feta (add more if you like it cheesier). Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes. You want the cheese to be browned and the peppers tender.

If you are using sausage: cook the sausage in a separate pan until done. Drain off the excess fat and add to the mixture when you add the spinach, tomatoes, sauce, and all the seasonings. Stir in well. This will become your spinach/sausage mixture with what you stuff your peppers with.

We enjoyed this dinner alongside a spinach salad with a homemade balsamic dressing (see previous post). It was a delicious meal. You could also serve over rice, or to make it more exciting a nice risotto. Possibilities are endless. This meal is easy to make vegetarian (which was what I did for my pepper) or meaty (Ryan's pepper). I just kept the meat separate from the spinach mixture - spooned my mixture into the pepper, then added the sausage to the spinach mixture for Ryan's peppers! Pretty easy....

Hope you enjoy!