stoplight stuffed peppers.

i have never participated in a BSI (blogger secret ingredient) challenge before, but i have always wanted to. with the boyfriend out of town this weekend, i found myself with a little spare time so i decided to whip something up! the secret ingredient this week was bell peppers and the host of the challenge is jenn over at bread + butter!

this is a recipe i have evolved into my own from various meatloaf and stuffed pepper recipes i have made throughout the years.  hope you try it and hope you like it!

stoplight stuffed peppers

ingredients:

• 2 green bell peppers
• 2 yellow bell peppers
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1.25 lb ground turkey (or beef or bison or chicken, whichever you prefer)
• 1 cup oats
• 1/4 cup ground flax
• 1 cup of your favorite salsa
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 8 oz crimini mushrooms, diced
• 1 package knorr vegetable dip mix
• 4 large egg whites
• one 8 oz can of no salt added tomato sauce
• lots of fresh ground pepper
• lots of thyme

directions:

1. throw your ingredients in a bowl, the order does not matter.. but this is how i did mine:

ground turkey.

veggie mix.

salsa.

egg whites.

ground pepper.

oats.

flax.

onions.

(then i mixed it up)

tomato sauce.

thyme.

(mixed some more)

mushrooms.

(mix again)

2. cut tops off of bell peppers and clean out the insides. (yes i know they are called membranes but i hate that word for some reason.)

3. fill peppers with mixture all the way to the top edge

4. place peppers on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees [f] for one hour, give or take.  you can also cook any excess filling in a loaf pan or fill more peppers.

5. the peppers will be done when the tops start to get a dark brown color.

6. douse in frank’s red hot & annie’s ketchup and devour!!

$hot

nutrition statistics per pepper (before hot sauce or ketchup or other condiments): 283 calories, 32 grams protein, 30.6 grams carbohydrates, 4.3 grams fat, 630 mg sodium, 9 grams fiber, 9 grams sugar; which is a ratio of 44% protein, 42% carbohydrates, 14% fat.