Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

Yikes...we did it again Mom!  I now have a four month old busy boy at home - what's your excuse?!!!  I've been taking as many pictures of food as I have of Hudson, but haven't had a chance to get them up here for you.  Sorry about that!

I'll start with this delicious gem of a recipe.  Incredibly tasty and filling and not as difficult as it may look, these quinoa stuffed bell peppers are so good for you too!  This recipe is from one of my old Vegetarian Times Magazines.


You'll need:

• 2 tbsp of olive oil 
• 1 medium onion - chop it finely
• 3 large carrots - grate these
• 1/2 cup of celery - also chopped
• 1 10oz pkg. of frozen chopped spinach (thaw it and squeeze the water out)
• 2 15oz cans of diced tomatoes (drain them but keep the liquid)
• 1 15oz can of black beans (rinse and drain these)
• ¾ cup quinoa
• 1 tbsp of ground cumin
• 2 cloves of garlic - minced (I use the pre-minced in a jar)
• 1 ½ cups of pepper jack cheese (grate it, and you can use a reduced fat version as well)
• 4 large bell peppers (I used red and yellow)

The recipe calls for you to half them right away, but I stuffed the peppers whole after cleaning them out and it worked beautifully (PLUS it looked cooler when serving on a plate with their little stem hats on!!!

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F.

2. Heat the olive oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and the celery, and cook for 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the cumin and the garlic, and sauté for another minute. Stir in the spinach and the drained tomatoes. Cook for 5 minutes (or until most of liquid has evaporated).

2. Now, stir in the black beans, the quinoa, the carrots, and add 2 cups of water. Cover the pan and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer it for 20 minutes (or until the quinoa is tender). Stir in 1 cup of the cheese. Season it all with salt and pepper (if you want to...I did!).

3. Pour the liquid from your canned tomatoes into the bottom of a baking dish.

4. Fill each bell pepper with a solid heaping of the quinoa mixture, and place it in the baking dish. Cover it up with aluminum foil, and bake for 1 hour. Uncover them and sprinkle each pepper with 1 tbsp of remaining cheese. Bake for another 15 minutes (or until tops of stuffed peppers are browned). Let them stand for 5 minutes before serving.  You can also serve them with some of the pan juices on top...extra tasty! 

Let me know if you make this one...I think I'm going to have to do it again next week!

Enjoy xoxo