stuffed peppers

This stuffed pepper recipe is one the the very first recipes I ever made after starting South Beach.  5ish years later and it is still a staple in our meal rotation.  It’s super simple, requires very few ingredients, can be easily adapted to your liking, and is delicious.

Apparently I was in la-la-land while we were cooking and I failed to take many pictures but I think you’ll get the idea.

First you need to cook your meat.  We usually use ground beef but last night we decided to try it with shredded chicken (and it was delicious), so I cooked the chicken breast in the crock pot and then shredded it with my KitchenAid mixer.

Cut two bell peppers in half and cut out the seeds

Put your peppers in a pot of water and boil for 5 minutes

While the peppers are cooking, mix the chicken (or other meat), beans, tomato sauce, and taco seasoning

Fill the peppers with the mixture, add cheese if desired, and bake

Recipe

ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts or 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 small can (8 oz?) tomato sauce
• 1/2 to 1 packet taco seasoning
• cheese, sour cream, etc. as desired

instructions

Cook chicken and shred (I cook mine in the crockpot for about 4 hours on high, then shred it in my mixer).  In a large skillet, mix the chicken with the full can of kidney beans, the full can of tomato sauce, and at least half the packet of taco seasoning (sometimes we have to add more if it doesn’t have enough flavor for us).  Simmer for about 5 minutes.  (When we use ground beef we brown the ground beef in a skillet, grain off the fat, add all the other ingredients, and cook).  Cut two bell peppers in half and remove the seeds. Place in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes.  Remove the peppers from the water and place in a baking pan.  Fill each pepper half with the chicken/bean mixture.  Sprinkle on cheese and bake at 350 for 5 minutes, just long enough for the cheese to melt.

Michael puts cheese on his but I don’t.  I do, however, like to eat it with some fat free sour cream.  You could also add corn or rice (neither if you’re doing Phase 1), tomatoes, onions, or other types of beans.  Whatever suits your fancy.

Each pepper has 230 calories.  This recipe is a good one for people on South Beach Phase 1.