Spring is here as are new resolutions of fitness goals and weight loss plans before the summer’s swim season. So many recipes, even the ones made from scratch, can be quite calorie laden. I’m often tweaking recipes to make them suitable for our lifestyle. This usually means it must either be quick to prepare or one that can be made in a crock pot. I love a good one dish meal. Stuffed peppers fit that bill perfectly, except my DH isn’t a fan of all the yummy fillers of rice, quinoa, orzo and the like typically used. Tonight I experimented with a “filler” free recipe. And I scored! The hubs loved it. He is also a huge UT fan so in honor of last weekends orange and white game, I selected this beauty to stuff for our dinner tonight.
Guildless Italian Stuffed Peppers
2016-04-18 18:03:08
Ingredients
- 4 bell peppers - color of your choosing
- 1 lb lean ground beef - I used pastured beef
- 1 large onion - diced
- 1 cup mushrooms - diced
- 1 zucchini - diced
- 1 bell pepper - diced, I used 1/2 red, 1/2 yellow for added color
- 2 cups kale - chopped
- 1 can seasoned diced tomatoes- I love garlic & basil and prefer to can my own tomatoes
- 4 TBS tomato paste
- 3 cloves garlic - minced
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees - meanwhile cut the tops out of your 4 peppers and removed the seeds. Keep your pepper tops. Once seeds have been removed, place them in your baking dish with their tops, cover with foil and bake the peppers whole for 20 minutes.
- While the peppers are baking, brown your ground beef with a little salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste, drain off excess grease and set aside. Over medium heat add your olive oil, roughly 2-4 Tsp, all your diced & chopped veggies except tomatoes & paste, add minced garlic, salt & pepper & add Italian seasonings to taste and simmer til fork tender. Add in your tomatoes, paste and cooked ground beef. Stir well. If needed add more salt, pepper & Italian seasoning and let simmer 5 minutes.
- Gently ladle your mixture into each whole bell pepper, cap with the pepper top to keep everything moist while cooking.
- Return your baking dish with the stuffed peppers into the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
- Serve hot.
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