Stuffed Peppers

I personally have always thought "stuffed peppers" was a horrible name. It just does not sound good. Not even in the slightest. Well, this weekend we attempted to make stuffed peppers taste better than they sound. They were good, but we also have some suggestions and revisions for next go-round.

Ingredients:
3 green bell peppers
1 pound ground turkey, cooked
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
     **basically, chop everything
handful of cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered (my fam is so into fresh tomatoes, so I added these for good measure)
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained (I'd recommend diced tomatoes with seasoning...italian or whatevs)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Italian seasoning to taste
2-3 cloves roasted garlic, minced (or garlic powder to taste)
salt and pepper to taste

First off, this made A TON of filling. So, honestly, I'd suggest halving the meat (Freeze half for use at a later date! Hello, savings. Ground turkey is pricey.) and all the veggies unless there is one veggie you L-O-V-E and cannot get enough of. Then, by all means, use the full amount. Or you could buy more peppers to stuff.

Secondly, our suggestions for next time include adding some shredded parm to the mix and perhaps a bit of flavored rice (eg. rice-a-roni) for more flavor. Or you could play around with the herbs and spices some more.

Okay, here we go.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Wrap the bell peppers in aluminum foil and place in a baking dish. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from heat.

3. Chop veggies.

4. In a skillet over medium heat, brown the turkey. Set aside.

Heat oil in the skillet, and cook onion, mushrooms, zucchini, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, spinach, and fresh tomatoes until tender.

Return the turkey to the skillet. Mix in the diced tomatoes and tomato paste, and season with Italian seasoning, garlic, salt and pepper.

5. Cut the tops off the green peppers and remove the seeds. (At this point, we would add said cheese and/or rice into the mixture.) Stuff the peppers with the skillet mixture. Garnish with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. (We also really like cheese in this family...everything in moderation. No? We try to use cheese in a dish whenever we can. Haha. Is that terrible?)

6. Return the peppers to the oven and continue cooking 15 mintues.

Super easy, right? And talk about some vegetables. Polyphenol and antioxidant city!

Oh and we paired our stuffed peppers with a warmly toasted cheese biscuit. YUM!