Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Mystery Box Challenge: Baked Stuffed Peppers


When Doug challenged me several weeks ago to come up with a recipe that included his choice of random ingredients (ala the Food Network show "Chopped"), I readily agreed. When he told me the ingredients were Bell Peppers, Sharp Cheddar Cheese and Oatmeal.. I gagged slightly. This would be a challenge. At first I thought about doing a quiche with an oatmeal crust. However after hanging out with my Hungarian dad, I settled on something more familiar. Stuffed bell peppers!

This recipe makes two halves, which I am counting as two servings. You can lower the calories by using reduced fat cheese or a leaner ground meat. These freeze and reheat well. Enjoy and I look forward to seeing who wins the $10 Starbucks gift card! The March challenge closes at midnight on the 31st!

Baked Stuffed Peppers

1/4 lb 90% lean ground sirloin
1/4 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 green bell pepper, halved and cleaned
1/4 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1 small white onion, diced
1 small tomato, diced
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 small can of tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Set aside a pinch or two of cheese. Mix remaining ingredients, except bell pepper and tomato sauce, together until blended. Stuff into two halves of the pepper and bake for 20 minutes.

Open the can of sauce and pour over peppers. Bake for 20 more minutes.

Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake for 5 more minutes.

This should be enough time to cook through while not leaving the bell pepper soggy. You can check the internal temperature of the meat with a thermometer.

Nutritional Information: 250 calories/10.5 grams of fat/4.5 grams of fiber/17 grams of protein

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stuffed peppers was definitely the right way to go with these ingredients. Oatmeal is the hard one here but it sounds like it was pretty good with the pepper. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

A great job turning those mystery ingredients into a lovely dish. You'd get my vote if I were a judge on "Iron Chef'' or "Chopped''!

Heather S-G said...

These turned out great! Good job w/ your mystery ingredients :)

Anonymous said...

That looks great, what a creative way to use those ingredients!

Anonymous said...

this was the perfet idea for these ingredients!! I finally came up with some ideas for this... I'm on call all weekend, but hopefully I'll have time to try somrthing out.

Disclaimer:

I get asked by readers if I am being paid to push products. The simple answer is no. In fact, most of the products I write about are ones I have found and purchased during my trips to the grocery store or on the road. Occasionally, a company will send a sample my way and if I believe the product will serve a need for my readers and I would buy the product myself, then I will share it with you. Sometimes I will write to a company after reading about it, if I believe it will help us lead healthier lifestyles. But even then, if the product doesn't pass my scrutiny, it won't make the screen of Uncovering Food. You can trust that every product or recipe posted here has passed through my lips, and that I wouldn't blog about it if it wasn't worthy of you... my favorite readers.