Healthy BBQ, Brown Rice & Turkey Stuffed Peppers!

Stuffed Peppers can be taken in several different directions, and just the other night mine went the BBQ-flavor route.  As I began to prepare the peppers for the dish I realized I didn't have any tomato sauce - a typical key ingredient.  For a few seconds I thought my stuffed pepper recipe was doomed...but then I got to thinking - improvise!  I knew I had some tomatoes in the fridge that only had a couple days left in them before they could no longer be used, a bottle of ketchup & some BBQ sauce.  With these three ingredients I was able to create some delicious, healthy BBQ sauce-flavored stuffed peppers!

As I've said before, improvising & experimenting is a fantastic way to improve your cooking knowledge and skills.  As we cruise into the prime of the holiday season, we should take a step back to think about how lucky we are to have what we do. Food, shelter, clothing, clean water & virtually unlimited use of these things - all of which we too often take for granted. By teaching yourself to be more resourceful in your cooking, you'll save yourself money & probably end up using ingredients you may have otherwise let go to waste.  You can come up with some pretty rad, original recipes too.  Live a bit more modestly when you can & exercise your resourcefulness...attributes that can be applied to many other areas of life well beyond cooking.

Check out the photos & recipe below for my version of stuffed peppers - but don't be shy to change up the recipe a bit to fit your supplies or preferences.  I've also included some substitutions next to the ingredients to get your thoughts rolling!

Preparation

Festive ingredients

Ground turkey & onion simmer

Tomatoes + garlic smell heavenly

Combine the goodness

Add the sauce

Peppers pre-cook

Finished product

Healthy BBQ, Brown Rice & Turkey Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

- 2-4 bell peppers (I had green & red on hand, but yellow or orange also work)
- 1/2 cup dry brown rice (could use quinoa or white rice instead)
- 1/2 chicken bouillon cube (totally optional for cooking rice if wanting more flavor; vegetable or beef bouillon cubes could also be used)
- 1 lb lean ground turkey (If you only use 2 peppers, you'll only need about a half a pound of turkey.  I only made enough for 2 people, so I only used 2 peppers & had turkey left over.  Since I cooked all the turkey at once, I seasoned the leftover later with cumin, garlic salt & hot sauce and put it in a taco salad)
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced (white or red will also do)
- tomatoes, diced (I had 1 1/2 Roma tomatoes in my fridge so I used them up. Any type of tomato would do here, give or take the amount - use what you have.  Also, tomato sauce (1 -8 oz. can) or marinara/spaghetti sauce would also work - use 1 cup.)
- 1 tblsp olive oil (or cooking oil, canola is healthiest)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced (substitute 1 tsp garlic salt or garlic powder if you don't have fresh garlic on hand)
- 3 tblsp ketchup (only if using actual diced tomatoes, not tomato sauce or marinara)
- 4 tblsp BBQ sauce (only if using actual diced tomatoes, not tomato sauce or marinara)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- reduced-fat feta crumbles (optional; can use any other cheese crumbles/shredded cheese you like for topping)


Directions:

Cook rice according to package directions, adding half a bouillon cube to the boiling water before adding rice for extra flavor, if desired.  Wash & dry peppers, then slice in half length-wise and remove seeds.  Set aside.

Dice onion and set aside.  Cook thawed ground turkey in skillet over medium heat, stirring often, for 10 minutes.  Drain & return to skillet.  Add diced onion to skillet and continue to cook turkey with onion for the next 5 minutes.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 F°

Dice tomatoes.  Heat oil in small skillet over medium heat and add tomatoes.  Cook, stirring often, for 5 mins, then add minced garlic and sauté for another 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.

In a small bowl mix together the ketchup, BBQ sauce, salt & pepper.  In a large bowl combine ground turkey/onion, brown rice, tomatoes/garlic and sauce mixture.  Place pepper halves in a shallow baking dish, cut side up.  Spoon mixture into pepper halves.  Top sparingly with cheese of your choice, if desired (I used reduced-fat feta).  Place in oven and cook for 40 mins, or until peppers have softened and inside is hot.  Top with hot sauce if you're a fan :)

Enjoy!