Mini Mexican Stuffed Peppers

I bought a large bag of mini colored bell peppers at Sam's club last week hence my last post of grilled peppers and this one of baked stuffed peppers.  They are a versatile ingredient - I guess I was just in the mood to stuff them with goodness!

This recipe can be easily modified and adapted depending on the flavors you are in the mood for.  In this version, I mixed some quinoa (I'm on a quinoa kick) with refried beans.  You can easily do this with rice instead of quinoa and even try black or pinto beans instead of refried.  I also went vegetarian since I ate them as a side with baked chicken but you could opt to add meat or chicken to the filling as well if you wanted this as your main and are inclined to always have meat in your main.  I love a recipe where the options are endless!

Stuffed Mini Peppers
Time: About 40 minutes

Ingredients:
4-6 mini bell peppers (found in the refrigerated section of grocery in a plastic bag)
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove minced
1 can refried beans (I used chipotle flavor)
3 tablespoons salsa (I used corn salsa)
1/2 cup quinoa cooked
1 jalapeno seeded and chopped or 1-2 canned green chiles chopped (optional)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Note: this makes way more filling than you need - I made two batches with this amount. You can also use left over filling for burritos or nachos the next night.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut tops off peppers and slice in half lengthwise stopping before you cut all the way through.  Remove seeds and membrane.

Heat olive oil in small sauce pan.  Add onion and garlic and cook until soft.  Add beans, salsa and quinoa and jalapeno and cook until warm.  Remove from heat and cool until mixture is safe to handle.

Spoon mixture into each pepper so that you can still kind of close the pepper.  Place peppers on baking sheet and sprinkle each with cheese.  Cover and bake in preheated oven about 25-35 minutes until peppers are soft. 

Enjoy that yummy goodness with chips and sour cream! (sorry about the lame pic)

Cheezy Grilled Stuffed Peppers

My Mother-in-law made these this past summer when we were visiting.  Let me say, they are soooo incredibly simple and very delicious! Perfect to serve as an appetizer while you are waiting to grill up the main event! The great thing about these are you can make as few or as many as you'd like.  It's very easy to scale up or down on the short ingredient list.

Ingredients:
Small sweet bell peppers (you can find these in the refrigerated section at the grocery store, they usually come in a package with a bunch together)
Laughing Cow Queso Fresco & Chipotle Cheese
Bacon
Toothpics

Directions:
Heat up grill.

Slice the tops off each bell pepper.  Next, slice down the middle lengthwise but do not cut all the way through to make two pieces, keep the other end in tact as it is easier to keep the cheese in.  Using your knife, cut out the seeds and membrane of the peppers.

Stuff each pepper with laughing cow cheese.  I used about half a wedge for each pepper.  They do not need to be completely stuffed throughout the inside, just enough to get it all around to you get some cheese in each bite.

Take 1/2 or 1 piece of bacon (depending on the size of the pepper) and wrap it around the pepper covering as much surface area as you can.  Secure the bacon and pepper together with a toothpick.

Once all peppers are assembled, grill them on the grill about 4-5 minutes per side or until bacon is cooked completely and crispy on the outside.  Enjoy!  Oh, make sure to watch the toothpicks as you do so!

Pic below... I almost forgot to take a pictures because we devoured these so fast :-)