I mentioned in a previous post that I am definitely a stress eater. Life always seems to be too stressful, so you guessed it, I had been stress eating! I decided to try to eat a low carb diet lately in order to kick start weight loss and healthier eating. For the most part, I am sticking to low carb veggies (green ones mostly), lean meats, eggs, salads and healthy fats and oils (olive oil). The challenge has been to incorporate low carb options without adding unhealthy carbs and fats and also to not get bored with my food options at the same time. Today I decided to whip up a modified version of stuffed green peppers.
I used Jennie-O ground turkey mixed with some ground beef to improve the health slightly and omitted the rice.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 lbs Jennie-O ground turkey
1/2 lb ground beef
6 small green peppers (if using large, reduce to 4)
1/2 large white or yellow onion
2 cloves fresh garlic
3/4 cup tomato puree
2 Tbsp salsa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp season salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp dried oregano
2 Tsp dried basil
2 cups shredded monterrey jack and colby cheese blend (divided)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut tops off green peppers (reserve tops) and clean green peppers. Place empty pepper cups in a pot of boiling water for approximately 5 minutes to slightly cook and soften the pepper. Remove, drain and place in a baking dish.
Meanwhile, dice reserved green pepper tops (discarding stems), onion and garlic. Place in a skillet along with the ground turkey and ground beef. Cook at medium-high until done. Reduce heat to medium-low and add spices, salsa and tomato puree.
Continue to cook until heated through. Turn off heat and add 1 cup of the shredded cheese and stir until mixed well.
Fill each pepper cup to the top with meat mixture. Top with remaining 1 cup of shredded cheese.
Place baking dish in oven and cook just until cheese has melted and starts to slightly brown.
Serve along with a spinach or tossed salad or other vegetable of your choice.
I decided to only fill 4 small pepper cups and use the remaining meat mixture this week in some other dishes. . .I think it would be great mixed in with scrambled eggs!
I estimate that this entire recipe has approximately 18 carbs. Since it will serve 6, that averages out to be only about 3 carbs per serving. This is low on the carb scale, but much higher on the taste scale!
