Stuffed Peppers

This is one of those food experiments that I thought would look very pretty, but figured that only J and K would actually eat it. So, I invited my parents up for dinner so it would be enjoyed by a couple more people. My dad couldn't make it, but my mom was game, and brought him leftovers.

I used the recipe at allrecipes.com, but made a couple changes due to what I had on hand. Here's the original recipe. I don't feel like the fat content on that is accurate because it has 18 grams of fat, but my olive oil would only have 7 grams per serving, and my ground turkey was 4 grams per serving. I think that recipe assumed a fattier ground turkey.

I used red peppers because that is what I had. I didn't bother with yellow peppers.

Stuffed Peppers with Turkey and Vegetables

Ingredients

• 4 red bell peppers, tops removed, seeded
• tops from bell peppers, chopped
  
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 1 cup fresh spinach
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• Italian seasoning to taste
• garlic powder to taste
• salt and pepper to taste
• mozzarella cheese
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the turkey until evenly brown, seasoning with garlic, salt, pepper, and italian seasoning. Set aside. Heat oil in the skillet, and cook onion, mushrooms, zucchini, red bell pepper, and spinach until tender. Return turkey to the skillet. Mix in the tomatoes and tomato paste, and season w ith Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Stuff the peppers with the skillet mixture. Top each pepper with a little mozzarella cheese.
3. Place leftover filling in a casserole dish and top with mozzarella.
   
4. Place peppers in the oven, and cook 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted. The casserole leftovers may need a little more time to cook.

So, shockingly enough, all four of my kids wolfed it down. The youn ger thr ee didn't get a pepper because they told me they didn't like pepper, but I gave them filling from the casserole dish and they ate every bite!

Here is the filling while cooking:

And here's the peppers:

I know, my cookie sheet is a mess. I attempted to stuff a couple peppers without picking them up. That was a mistake.