Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

I put this together with stuff I had around the house. Each pepper is enough for one person. It cures my Italian cravings without all those nasty pasta calories. The dish is low fat and lower in calories than the meaty option. With all the other seasonings you don't miss the beef. You can probably make the mix a day before and refrigerate. Since you are really just heating things through there is very little chance for error. If you have picky non-veg eaters you can probably make this with beef. It's ok to eyeball the quantities to get the consistency and taste you want...that's what I do. It's hard to goof this up.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 medium onion
2 bell peppers (get the wide and squatty ones and look for ones that will sit upright
1 bag of 90 second brown rice or 1-1/2c of cooked brown rice
1/2 bag of Boca (fake ground beef) crumbles
1/2c diced baby bella mushrooms
2 c Marinara Sauce (eyeball it)
1 tsp Italian seasoning, adding extra oregano and basil is optional
Red pepper flakes (optional)
1-2 cloves of garlic
2 tsp chopped or 1 tsp dried parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash peppers. Cut the tops out to create a bowl. Rinse out any loose seeds and use your fingers to pull out any white pith. Boil a pot of water and par boil the peppers for about 3-5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to move them around if the water doesn't cover the entire pepper. Take them out, and turn upside down on a clean towel to cool. Dice onions and saute in a saucepan at medium heat until the onions are soft. Add spices except for garlic. Stir to combine. Add in crumbles and stir through to heat. Add rice and make sure rice is distributed and not clumpy. Add garlic, diced mushrooms and stir through. Add parsley and 1/2-3/4 c of the marinara sauce to the mix. The mix should hold together and be thick. It's cooked so it's safe to taste. Add spices to taste. Remove from heat and allow to cook while you prep peppers.

Scoop the mixture into the pepper bowl and compress with a spoon.

Add EVOO to the bottom of a bake pan to prevent sticking. Sit the peppers upright in the pan. Spoon the rest of the marinara sauce over the stuffed peppers.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 until the peppers are cooked.

Tips/suggestions: For kids, you can also hide other diced veggies by adding to the mix to conceal them. To hide the mushrooms you can saute those with the onion. Adding them later gives nice texture.

One pepper is a filling meal. Cut in two to serve as a side dish or look for small peppers. Because there is no meat it travels and re-heats well.