Stuffed Peppers

This is one of my favorite meals from home. However, recently I just haven't liked the flavor of ground beef. So, I decided to modify the recipe and use ground turkey. I also added some zucchini and mushrooms. It turned out really delicious! My roommate said it was really good. My only disappointment was that I didn't have any cooking sherry. The grocery store near my house didn't have any and I wasn't going to drive across the town just to get sherry!

Stuffed Peppers
3 Green bell peppers*
1/2 lb ground turkey (or lean ground beef)
1/4 cup diced onion
"handful" of presliced mushrooms**
2/3 cup cubed zucchini**
1 clove garlic pressed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 T dry sherry
dash cayene pepper, salt***
1 cup cooked brown rice****
3/4 cup samsoe or mozzarella (cubed or shredded)
1 can stewed tomatoes

Clean pepper and cut off 1 inch stem end. Cut away stem and choppepper surrounding it. Cut each pepper in half. Parboil peppers for 10 minutes. Saute onion, turkey, peppers, garlic, mushrooms, zucchini, thyme, sherry, pepper, and salt until turkey browns. Fold in rice and cheese. Spoon in to peppers, place tomatoes in dish, arrange peppers on top. Place some cheese on top of each pepper and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

*The original recipe called for 4 peppers NOT cut in half and filled, but this was a little big for us, so we cut them in half. Mama only does two peppers (for a total of 2 halves) but always has leftover filling. I used 3 peppers and had enough to fill them, but if you like ultra-full peppers, just use 4 halves.

**The original recipe did not include these ingredients.
***I didn't measure this but added until I thought it tasted right. Definitely more than a dash!
****The original recipe called for wild rice. This is a really good flavor, but I had brown rice. I added a little curry to it for flavor.

This is my ARF entry at Sweetnicks site. Join in the fun and get your veggies!