Quinoa and Pork Stuffed Peppers

I really strayed from our usual meals with this stuffed pepper recipe.  It's not a typical thing that we eat around here but when I was at the HEB they were having a sale on red bell peppers and it was the first thing that I noticed when I walked in.  I've also been thinking a lot about recipes that would be "Dad friendly" and freezer friendly that I could send to my Mom.  I knew I had some quinoa and diced tomatoes in my pantry and some left over beef broth from when I made my pot roast the other day and instantly thought of making some stuffed peppers.  A quick call to Kyle to make sure he approved and we were on our way to making some YUMMY stuffed peppers that will now be a staple in our meal rotation.  They are even better the next day for lunch!



*I had some leftover filling that I froze and am going to end up stuffing it in some zucchini boats later this week.  So the recipe is for 4 peppers with some leftover filling, you can always make it 5 peppers if you don't want to deal with remaining filling*

Quinoa and Pork Stuffed Peppers

INGREDIENTS

4 red bell peppers
1/2 cup of raw quinoa
1 cup of beef broth
1 zucchini
1 onion
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups of baby portabellas
1 lb. of ground pork
3 teaspoons of garlic salt
1 1/2 tablespoons of worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon of pepper
3 teaspoons of low sodium Montreal Steak Seasoning
red pepper flakes to taste
3 cups of shredded jack cheese
olive oil

DIRECTIONS

  • preheat the oven to 400 and cook the quinoa according to the package, I used 1/2 cup of quinoa to 1 cup of beef broth, brought it all to a boil, then covered the pot and lowered the heat for about 15 minutes



  • chop up all of the veggies (onion, baby bellas and zucchini)

  • in a pan add some olive oil and saute the onions until translucent

  • then add the chopped veggies, worcestershire sauce, pepper and garlic salt and saute for about 5-8 minutes depending on how distracted you get :)
  • then add the can of diced tomatoes (juice and all) and the cooked quinoa and mix together, you don't have to cook this long, just a few minutes pour into a bowl and set aside

  • In the same pan add the ground pork and about 3 teaspoons of low sodium montreal steak seasoning (I forgot to take a picture at this point :) and brown up
  • Mix together the ground pork, the quinoa/tomato/veggie mixture, red pepper flakes to taste and 2 cups of the shredded cheese
  • cut off the tops of the peppers and remove the seeds and stem
  • stuff the filling into the peppers
  • in a small dish, lightly grease the bottom and place the peppers in, bake for 30 minutes

  • after 30 minutes add the remaining cup of cheese to the tops of the peppers and return to the oven for about 20 minutes more

We served these with scalloped potatoes and boy were we, ahem, stuffed.