Italian Stuffed Peppers

Remember that one time you went on a wonderful vacation and when you came home you couldn't find your camera?

No? Just me?

I apologize for the picture in advance, folks, but I've only got an iPhone with work with at the moment...Where, oh where, has my camera gone? Oh, where, oh, where could it beeee??

When I was young, I always loved when my dad made stuffed peppers for dinner. But it took forever! Why in the world did something so simple take so dang long?

My stuffed peppers are much, much quicker. I add browned ground meat to cooked quinoa and flavor it with delicious Italian seasonings and tomato sauce. Then I stuff it all into steamed bell peppers, bake it, and top it with some parmesean cheese! It's done in about 30 minutes!

High protein, low carb, low fat, full on tasty!

Italian Stuffed Peppers

serves 6- I know, the picture shows 4.

6 medium sized bell peppers

1 cup uncooked quinoa

2 cups water (or 1 cup water & 1 cup broth)

1 lb ground meat (I used chicken)

1 (15oz) can tomato sauce

2 tbs garlic powder

1 tbs onion power

-dried oregano & dried parsley would also be tasty-

In a large sauce pan, set water/broth and quinoa to boil. Quinoa will soak up all the water/broth. Bring it to a boil and then reduce heat to medium until all the liquid is soaked up. Stirring occasionally

While quinoa is cooking, brown the ground meat in a pan on medium-high heat and season with garlic and onion.

While these are cooking, slice the tops off the peppers, clean out the seeds and steam in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease the bottom of a baking dish, or pour a bit of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the dish. Arrange peppers in the baking dish.

When meat and quinoa are fully cooked, pour the tomato sauce and ground meat into the quinoa pan and combine. Spoon the mixture into the peppers. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, then top with parmesean cheese (1 tbs per pepper) and set back in the oven until cheese is melted, 3-5minutes.