The Baker's Sheet

Italian Veggie Stuffed Bell Peppers

Long time no blog, how is everyone??  I am so so sorry for the lack of posts in the past almost two months.  I have been so busy since starting classes this semester.  Apparently the working a 40 hour work week while taking 13 credit hours of classes on 4 days a week is taking a toll, and add in the fact that my workouts have pretty much been nonexistent for the later part of January and that makes for one unhappy me.  I even took a week’s vacation from work in the time that I have been away and still have not managed to get back on track, but I think this week has been the best week yet since the start of the semester with getting everything that I want accomplished.

Did I tell you all that I tried out CrossFit in December and absolutely LOVE it??  Cause I really do love it, but I haven’t been able to go in over a month because of all my stuff due for school.  But I do believe that this is going to change in the near future.  All of my classes seem to be calming down, and I have finally gotten to where I can get most of my homework in on the weekends so that frees up some extra time throughout the week for me, which means a much more happier me.

Now back to the recipe, I have been trying to incorporate much more veggies in my diet along with other good for me foods(like eggs, I ate an egg a couple of weeks ago for the first time since I was probably 8, and I liked it!).  So far so good, I think one week I ate a pound of broccoli for lunch for three days straight.  Which is a whole lot of broccoli eating.  This recipe is a goo one for getting in the extra veggies, with the peppers of course, sweet potatoes, zucchini and spinach it is great.  Roasting the peppers before stuffing them gives them the added flavor, and extra tenderness.  I know that this will be going into my list of must make again recipes!

Italian Veggie Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

• 2 bell peppers, halved and cleaned
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 2 green onions, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 1/2 cup spinach, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped and divided
• 6 tablespoons tomato paste
• sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
2. Place halved peppers on baking sheet, face down and bake for 10-15 minutes or until softened.
3. While the peppers are cooking, heat the coconut oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and add diced sweet potatoes.
4. Sauté sweet potatoes until just tender.  Then add green onions, zucchini, and garlic continuing to sauté for 1-2 additional minutes.
5. While the veggies are cooking, brown beef in a separate skillet until fully done.
6. Add browned beef to the vegetable mixture along with the spinach, half of the basil and the tomato paste and stir to combine.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Remove the peppers from the oven and spoon the beef mixture into the inside of the peppers.
9. Serve with additional basil.