Normally, if one participates in the Secret Recipe Club, one posts a recipe with the assigned group on a Monday.
There are 4 groups.
Some months have 5 Mondays (the audacity!).
The 5th Monday is given over to any who want to participate and a theme is chosen. The theme for this Monday is Fall Food.
How perfect for me as I am truly a seasonal cook – whatever comes to me from the potager mostly and the markets if I can’t grow it myself.
This time I got to chose a recipe from Fantastical Sharing of Recipes.
Sarah is a self-proclaimed recipe hoarder (always a good sign) and cooks for 5. She has a wide variety of recipes on her site….87 Copycat recipes alone! (Apparently that is a ‘thing’ in the U.S.)
I have to admit the Ding Dongs look tempting.
The recipe I actually made was more in keeping with fall cooking – and all the beautiful peppers flooding the markets at the moment: Quinoa Stuffed Peppers.
As usual, it’s been cut down to serve 2; I used red rather than green peppers and fresh tomatoes rather than sauce as I still had some.
As always – hot sauce on the side.
Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
Total time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (3.5oz, 100gr) quinoa
- 1 cup (8oz, 240ml) beef stock
- 2 – 3 nicely shaped medium bell peppers, any color
- 6oz (180gr) ground beef (mince)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups (15oz, 450gr) chopped, peeled tomatoes
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 cup (2oz, 60gr) shredded cheese
Instructions:
- Cook quinoa in stock until done, about 15 minutes.
- Put a large pot of water on high heat and bring to a boil.
- Cut peppers in half the long way (find the best flat sides before cutting) and remove stem and seeds.
- When water is boiling drop peppers in and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove and put into a baking dish.
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add onion, sauté until tender, 5 minutes.
- Add garlic, paprika, chili powder sauté briefly, about a minute.
- Add beef and sauté until cooked through, breaking it up as it cooks.
- Add tomatoes, basil and simmer until tomatoes are cooked and sauce starts to thicken.
- Stir in quinoa and heat through.
- Spoon mixture into the pepper halves.
- Cover with foil and bake for 10 minutes at 400F (200C).
- Remove foil and sprinkle with shredded cheese.
- Bake, uncovered until cheese melts.
- Serve.
So….. other than the Ding Dongs the Homemade Nutella had a certain appeal.
Okay, I admit it – I was intrigued by all the Copycat recipes even though I had no idea who most of them were copying.
On to other food: the Scalloped Potatoes with Meatballs sounded good and I think I could adapt that to the slow cooker.
Bacon-Wrapped, Gouda Stuffed Chicken looks like a hit for a Saturday night dinner.
Crunchy Mayo Pork Chops will be a great oven dinner, with roasted butternut squash and potatoes.
Of course, as Sarah has 3 kids, there are lots and lots of recipes for cookies and snacks and all sorts of baked goodies – over 200, actually.
As we are only 2 and one of us is a T1 diabetic…. I drooled a bit then went on to the vegetables.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon anyone?
I haven’t had stuffed peppers in forever and this recipe has my mouth watering.
This recipe is one of my all-time favorite recipes ever. It’s such a good one! 🙂 The copycats are mostly fast food/restaurant foods, but some are Little Debbie snacks or things like that. When we lived in upstate NY, we didn’t like to venture out of the house for fast food in the winter and none of the places really had *good* fast food (if there is such a thing), so I took to making and finding a lot of copycat recipes! I highly recommend the gouda stuffed chicken and the brussels. I LOVE brussels.
Definitely the Brussels sprouts – they should be coming to the markets in a few weeks! (And the chicken lol)
As it just so happens, I froze a bunch of red peppers recently so I could make stuffed peppers, and I think I need to try this recipe. Great choice.
I love recipes made for two! Great choice. Quinoa is so filling and tasty, perfect for fall nights!
stuffed peppers are so delicious! but my husband doesn’t like them. love that this recipe makes a smaller batch. 🙂
I recently started to like quinoa and I’m always looking for recipes where I can use it. I can’t wait to add this to the rotation.
I just made something similar and boy was it good. Perfect for a cool Fall night.
These peppers look super tasty! Nice fall SRC pick!
What an array Katie in that blog, how impossible to choose !!! But you did choose well, looks delicious.
Stuffed peppers are my one of my go-to meals. These look great!
What a lovely recipe! Stuffed peppers are so yummy.
These are so good. They are such an easy meal to make. Good pick!
Thanks, everyone – we love peppers too, and the quinoa was really a nice addition – more flavor than the usual rice. We eat them often in the fall when they are so plentiful at the markets!.