Stuffed Peppers

We hardly had any food in the house this week after getting back from our trip and I was a little lazy to go shopping the first day back. So I tried to find whatever I could to try to put together a decent meal last night for dinner.

Before leaving I had bought some bell peppers that were on sale and never got around to using them. They would only last a couple of more days, so I wanted use them right away. I hate throwing out any food, especially produce. So, I tried to find whatever else I could in the pantry and fridge to come up with an idea.

A few staples I pretty much always have on hand are a can of black beans, onions, and frozen corn. Right away I thought of this recipe I had pinned from Damn Delicious for stuffed peppers with quinoa. Luckily, I did have some red quinoa on hand.... enough for half the recipe. Since it was just us two and I only had three bell peppers, it worked out well.  The stuffed peppers were a really tasty, super easy and a great healthy dinner to opition.

I did tweak the recipe a bit by adding sautéed onions, paprika instead of red chilli, and shredded mexican style four cheeses, instead of feta. I had cilantro on hand, but completely forgot to use it! Honestly, I didn't miss it much. I also added a tad bit of regular salsa for more flavor to the stuffing. I cooked the stuffing on the stove and pre-cooked the bell peppers in the oven while working on the stuffing. When the stuffing was ready and bell peppers were slightly cooked, I took them out, stuffed them and put them back in the oven until they were tender. I think this helped cut down the cooking time by about 10 minutes or so for me.

We both really enjoyed these stuffed peppers. They were very satisfying and flavorful. It didn't occur to me at the time, but I think a dollop for sour cream would also be delicious to top these off. The stuffing is similar to what I've used in the past to make quinoa and black bean tacos. I'm not sure where I found the original recipe, but here is a similar one from Damn Delicious again. Can you tell that I'm a huge fan of this blog yet? :) The only additional thing I added on top of these tacos was an avocado-lime-crema. It's basically just avocados blended together with some yogurt, a bit of lime juice, salt and pepper... super easy! I had a decent amount of stuffing left over... so can you guess what we will be having for dinner tonight?!


Are you a fan of stuffed peppers?