Stuffed Peppers

In my imaginary future, my husband and I own a cute down home restaurant.  It will have a cute and creative name to go along with its yummy menu.  When I try out a new recipe (that I've created or transformed) I ask my husband "Can it go on the menu?"  In his best food critic voice, he answers.

This week I tried stuffed peppers.  A friend of mine recently wrote about making them for her hubby and how much he liked them. Now,  I don't particularly like peppers, and I actually don't remember if I've even ever had a stuffed pepper, but I figured, what the hay, I'd try it anyway.   I have a basic knowledge of what is typically in a stuffed pepper: meat, rice, and other veggies.  I decided to make my stuffed peppers without the aide of a classic recipe, so if you are used to a certain type of stuffed peppers, this probably isn't it.

My Stuffed Peppers

This is what I used:

3 large peppers
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 package success brown rice (cooked)
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/4 large onion (you could probably use 1 small one, but I only had a large one in my pantry)
1 cup (or a handful) of baby carrots.  Ever since my son started eating food I've been adding random        vegetables to my dishes.
1/2 cup of corn (left overs from the night before, no wasting in this house)
1 big spoon full of dill vegetable dip (a random leftover from my refrigerator)
2 big handfuls of cheddar cheese
A few shakes of pepper, garlic powder, and onion salt. (I typically don't cook with salt at all but I thought this needed it)
1 table spoon (I think) of olive oil, I don't measure when I cook, I kind of guesstimate ; )

This is what I did:

Preheated my oven to 375 degrees and started my quick rice.

In my Cuisinart Prep Plus II I chopped my onion, then carrots.  Next I rinsed, washed, and cut the tops off my peppers.  The pepper tops (minus the stems and a few bites for my Munchkin, which he chewed and spit on the floor) were chopped in my processor, and the inside of my peppers were cleaned out.  I browned the turkey meat with olive oil, and after about 5 minutes added my chopped veggies.  I let that cook and simmer till the meat was cooked through and the onions were translucent, then drained off the liquid.  Next I added my tomatoes, leftover corn, dill veggie dip, brown rice, and a handful of cheese.  Last I seasoned to taste.

I over filled my peppers and loaded them into a glass dish with a little olive oil (Okay I actually put too much olive oil in the bottom of my dish, don't make my same mistake) .  My family loves cheese probably more than chocolate, so I piled on the cheese!  There was some leftover stuffing which went into the baby food maker with more brown rice, and the rest offered to Munchkin with some sweet potatoes for dinner.

After the cheese was perfectly bubbly and brown I took it out of the oven.  Took 500,000 pictures (I have a new found respect for food photographers).  It smelled delish, and the fork full that I snuck out of one tasted great too.  Then I spoke to my mom on the phone, and she mentioned tomato sauce.  Following our conversation I added a little on the bottom of the dish.

Fast forward an hour when hubby gets home and this was the conversation:

Hubby: What's that?

Pink Lady: Stuffed Peppers.

Hubby: Interesting.

Pink Lady: What do you mean interesting? Haven't you ever heard of stuffed peppers?

Hubby: No

Pink Lady: Well give it a try and tell me what you think.

After cleaning his plate.
Hubby: That wasn't bad.  The pepper was a bit much, but the inside was good!

Pink Lady: Yeah, I don't like pepper so I will most likely only eat the stuffing.

Hubby: So why did you make this?

Pink Lady: Wanted to try something new.  So can this go on the menu?
This is where he puts his best food critic voice on
Hubby: Yeah, The stuffing was great, creamy and flavorful! You can make this again.  Pepper lovers would love it.  Next time I'll skip the pepper though.

Pink Lady: Maybe next time I'll skip stuffing peppers and stuff tomatoes instead. ; )

ENJOY!!!