Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

My husband loves stuffed peppers, so I make them often.  I had a mixture of ground beef and sausage in the freezer, half a jar of salsa, and a few red bell peppers from a good sale.  This recipe is what I came up with.  After making them a few times with rice, I tried using quinoa since it has lots of fiber, protein, and iron.  John asked me to only make them with quinoa; the dish was so much better.


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup cooked rice or quinoa
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1/2 pound cooked ground meat (you can also use a mixture of beef and hot sausage)
• 1/2 jar of salsa
• 1 T taco seasoning
• 4 medium bell peppers
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• shredded cheese (I like using Colby Jack best)
• olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Halve and remove seeds from pepper; lightly coat with olive oil; put in baking dish and roast for 20 minutes.
3. Brown ground meat in skillet.  Add taco seasoning and a tablespoon of water. Mix. 
4. Prepare rice or quinoa. Leave rice in pot while finishing ground meat. Add ground meat, black beans, onion, and corn to rice.  Mix well.  Add salsa.  Mix well.
5. Fill peppers with rice mixture. Bake 20-25 more minutes.
6. Top with cheese. Return to oven until cheese is melted.
7. Serve with sour cream or guacamole.

Difficulty: Medium

Time: 40 minutes

Source: adapted from a traditional stuffed pepper recipe