Pantry Stuffed Peppers

I am always looking for creative, healthy, and EASY dinner ideas.  Our regular weekly rotation often consists of tacos, breakfast for dinner, some kind of soup, a simple pasta dish, a baked chicken dish, and I always attempt to try about one new recipe a week.  This week I finally made stuffed peppers, a dish I have been meaning to try forever.  I looked at a handful of recipes for them online, and created my own…  The very best thing about this dish is you can browse your fridge and pantry, and use pretty much whatever you have…  Aside from what I listed in the ingredients below, other ideas are rice, onions, jalapenos, cilantro, Rotel, etc.

Pantry Stuffed Peppers

• 2 green peppers (red and yellow work too)
• ~2 Tbsp olive oil (or olive oil spray)
• taco seasoning (Try this homemade one we love.)
• ground beef (a 1/2 lb would be plenty)- If Rob would approve I'd use ground turkey, but he prefers beef
• 1 can of black beans (drained)- I used about 1/2 of a regular-sized can
• 1 can of corn
• 1 can of seasoned dice tomatoes (drained)- I used about 1/2 of a regular sized can
• 1 small can of green chiles
• Low-fat shredded cheddar cheese
• Light sour cream (to add at very end)

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Fry the hamburger, drain, then add in taco seasoning.  (I've been making my own lately to avoid all the bad chemicals in store-bought seasoning.)
3. In the meantime, cut your peppers in half and de-seed them.  Place peppers, empty bowl-side up, and drizzle the pepper with olive oil and place on a baking sheet (still bowl-side up.)  Bake the peppers for about 10 minutes, until they start to feel slightly soft.
4. Once the taco-seasoned hamburger is pretty much finished, add in corn, black beans, tomatoes, and green chiles to soften for about 5-8 minutes.
5. Take your peppers out of the oven and generously fill them with the hamburger/veggie mix.  Sprinkle cheese on each stuffed pepper, and put in oven for about 8 minutes.  Add sour cream before eating!

Stuffed peppers are definitely making their way into our dinner rotation!  YUMMM!