Leftover Stuffed Peppers

Oh my goodness, it's been nearly a year since I've done any blogging whatsoever.  I almost forgot how!  I made stuffed peppers tonight and posted a picture on Facebook and got a few requests for the recipe so I thought I would post and share here. The backstory is that is recipe was inspired by one I pinned on Pinterest awhile back.  It was a black bean quinoa Mexican style recipe for stuffed peppers.  I had thawed some ground beef on Saturday but lost the oomph I needed to make something with it and by Monday night I had to use it or lose it.  I cooked it up taco style (using my own taco seasoning), added a can of black beans and made a burrito.  I decided that I would use the leftover meat for stuffed peppers tonight.  So, I warmed up the meat, par-boiled the peppers, added a few other ingredients and olé! I was eating the most delicious dinner about 30 minutes later.

This recipe will make enough stuffing for 4 peppers.  You will want to adjust the recipe to suit your needs and I'm giving you the recipe here as if I was making them from scratch from the start (and not using leftovers).  Oh, and please don't judge me for my recipe writing skills - it's much harder than it appears.

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 16-oz. can of black beans rinsed and drained
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 cup water, divided
Taco Seasoning to taste
1 package of Seeds of Change Quinoa & Brown Rice (I buy this at Costco)
4 colored peppers (I used a mix of yellow, orange and red) rinsed with tops cut off and seeded
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Angie's Homemade Salsa

Directions

Cook ground beef and onion and drain.  Add black beans, taco seasoning and 1/4 water.  Combine well and heat through.  As a side note, I also added the bits and pieces from the peppers that were left after taking off the tops and evening out the bottoms.  Then add the quinoa and brown rice and a few spoonfuls of salsa.  The mixture shouldn't be too dry because you will be putting them in the oven and you don't want them to dry out.  Heat everything through.  Remove mixture from heat and stir in 1/2 shredded cheese.

Pre-cook your peppers in boiling water for 3-5 minutes.  Remove the peppers from the water, shaking off excess water.   Place the peppers in an 8x8" glass or baking pan.

Fill the peppers with the meat mix.  Top each pepper with salsa and shredded cheese.  Add 1/4 water to the bottom of the baking dish (this helps the peppers to continue to cook and keeps them from sticking) and loosely cover the pan and peppers with non-stick foil.

Bake at 350̊ for 15-20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.

If you're like me, I eat one pepper and then freeze the rest for later.  Enjoy!