Italian-Style Stuffed Peppers

To a lot of people, including me, food is more than just what you eat to keep your body nourished. It’s also an aspect of life that brings people together, brings them joy and creates long-lasting memories.

Some eats bring me back to certain times in my life. A meal I created the other night made me think of when my hubby and I first lived together. Our first months of living together, we were temporarily located in Florida while my Marine went to a specialty school there. I remember having fun creating our first dinners as a married couple, and one of my first meals for us in Florida was stuffed peppers.

I used to stuff them with soy crumbles, veggies and cheese, so while these stuffed peppers are more inspired by Italian ingredients like bread crumbs, mozzarella, parmesan, fresh basil, and San Marzano tomatoes, the concept is the same: Halve big red sweet peppers, pack them with goodness, and bake them until lightly crispy and tender.

The pepper filling includes one of my staple kitchen ingredients: instant brown rice. Whenever I need something quick and easy, I break out this rice and cook it in 5 minutes flat, mix it with some veggies, and have a simple meal ready in a jiffy.

One of my secrets to simplify things is to add chopped veggies to the boiling water, then cook with the rice. For this recipe, I cooked zucchini with the rice.

After the rice and zucchini were done cooking, I mixed them with tomatoes, bread crumbs, basil, onion, cheese and Italian seasoning.

I stuffed the peppers with the mixture, topped with more cheese, then baked until the cheese was bubbly and the peppers were tender.

Italian-Style Stuffed Peppers

Foodie Loves Fitness

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Total Time 45 mins

Servings 8

Calories 180 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 4 red bell peppers tops removed, seeded and cored
• 1 1/2 cups whole grain instant brown rice uncooked
• 1 cup San Marzano tomatoes cherry or vine ripe will work too
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs Italian-style
• 1 1/2 cups part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 1/4 yellow onion
• 1 TSP Italian seasoning
• Cooking spray

Instructions

 

• Dice zucchini and tomatoes, chop basil and mince onion.
• Cook rice according to directions, also adding zucchini into the pot when you add the rice.
• Once done cooking, place in a large mixing bowl. Add parmesan, 1 cup of the mozzarella, onion, tomatoes, 1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP of the bread crumbs, basil and Italian seasoning, and mix to combine well.
• Place the red peppers on a large baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Spoon the rice mixture evenly into each pepper. Top with remaining mozzarella and bread crumbs.
• Cover with foil and bake at 350 until cheese is bubbly and the peppers are tender, around 25 minutes.

Nutrition

Calories: 180kcalCarbohydrates: 23gProtein: 10gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 3gFiber: 2g

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

In other food news, today was a rare occasion for me: eating breakfast out. I hardly ever go out to breakfast – except when I’m in my hometown, in which case my grandma and I wind up at our favorite breakfast joint. Late morning we headed to a (very crowded) San Jose place called Bill’s Cafe. I ordered buckwheat pancakes with blueberries, and drizzled them with my favorite pancake topping, honey:

They were pretty good, but I think that my blueberry oat pancakes has em beat. 😉

Do you frequently dine out for breakfast? What’s your favorite breakfast meal?

Pancakes are definitely my favorite “special” breakfast, but I love to eat a bowl of fruit or yogurt topped with all kinds of goodness most days.