Blue Bells

Mike & I have always been big fans of stuffed peppers. The only problem is that most recipes call for fillings including rice, pasta, bread crumbs, or some other form of complex carbs, which we are currently trying to avoid. Last night, I decided to make some with whatever veges I could find in our fridge and add some ground turkey. At first, I was a little hesitant as to how these would turn out. But once the filling was done, I was SO excited that I even ate some of the filling by itself BEFORE dinner.

Filling:
1 lb. ground turkey
2 zucchinis, shredded
2 med. tomtatoes
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 white onion, chopped
Salt & pepper
Italian seasoning
4 oz. Blue Cheese Crumbles

...and 6 Bell Peppers to fill

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Brown the ground turkey in a pan over high heat. Add Italian seasoning and salt & pepper to taste. Let the mixture cool completely. Shred the zucchini using a cheese grater & place in a large mixing bowl. Add chopped onions, minced garlic & the chopped tomatoes. Mix to combine & add a pinch of salt & pepper. Once the turkey has fully cooled, add it to the bowl, along with 3 oz of the blue cheese crumbles.

Ok, now this is the hard part... DON'T EAT IT ALL YET!!! Seriously, I just kept taking spoonfuls, just to taste, of course. HA!

Cut the tops off of the bell peppers & a very small slice off of the bottom in order to stabilize them in your pan. I grease my pan with some cooking spray just to make sure that they don't stick. Fill each of the peppers with the mixture and cover the pan with foil.
(We only had 4 peppers, but we had MORE than enough filling to fill 6. Of course the filling made for nice quesadillas the next day.)

I placed a wad of foil in the pan, so that the peppers didn't slide around. Bake the covered peppers for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Then take them out of the oven, add some more blue cheese to the top (I also added just a little shredded cheddar for color) and place back in the oven for another 15 minutes, uncovered.

Our whole house was filled with the scents of roasting garlic and onions. Not to mention the italian seasoning and blue cheese... YUM!

We were so hungry and they smelled SO good, that when they came out of the oven, I forgot to take a picture of the entire finished product. So here is a picture of the remaining two. The cheese formed a nice golden, chewy crust on the top and the blue cheese in the filling melted into this creamy goodness in every bite.

I hope you enjoy! Oh and as I mentioned earlier, the leftover filling makes a great quesadilla the next day! Mike even warmed it up and put it over cottage cheese. It really could go on anything.