Corporate by Day, Foodie by Night: Shells's Stuffed Peppers

As I blogged last night I had prepped a few key pieces of my next meal to make it awesome. Tonight I made one of my favorites to make while Tom is traveling, stuffed peppers. They are easy and you can change up how you make them based on your tastes. This allows me to make them multiple times over a few weeks and not get sick of them! So let's get to it....

Shell's Stuffed Peppers
These ingredients served 1 for dinner (only eating 2 stuffed peppers and a side salad)
2 large peppers (Cubanelles are the best but need to be in season, large red or bell peppers will work)
1-1/2 fresh chicken sausages out of casing (any type of sausage will do but must be fresh and able to remove casing)
~1/2 cup of shredded cheese
~1 cup of black beans and rice (see prior recipe reference)
Optional - exclude black beans and rice and use only sausage...you may need up to 2 sausages as well as panko or bread crumbs to help hold together the mixture

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cut the top off of the peppers (just under stem). Carefully remove seeds not cutting sides. Clear out center of pepper to allow for ample space for sausage mixture.

Include all ingredients (excluding peppers) into large bowl. Mix together (hands work best) until well blended.

Now, taking small amounts of the sausage mixture push into the peppers. The smaller amount you start with the better as it will allow for you to get into the crevices of the pepper. Fill peppers to top. The mixture will expand some so try not to overfill. Picture below are the peppers ready to go into the oven. We use our small toaster/convection oven for cooking the peppers.

I like to bake in a pan that has a small rack to leave the peppers off the foil. This makes it easier to turn the peppers while cooking..no sticking in grease.

Cook peppers (depending on size) ~40-50 mins turning regularly. Hint: I tend to set my timer for 35 mins then watch pretty closely for the next 10-15 minutes. You will want to turn every 10 mins or so to get the peppers blistered and roasted nicely. I use a tongs to assist in turning as it allows me to use other hand to make sure mixture doesn't fall out of pepper.