Stuffed Peppers

I hated stuffed peppers as a kid. Rice and ground beef, with a pre-mixed envelope of seasoning in a mushy pepper.

This is not that. I threw this together from my pantry/fridge/freezer.

Ingredients:

3 sweet bell peppers (or more if your baking dish is bigger) cut in half and cleaned

1 C quinoa, cooked according to the directions on the package

8 oz frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and with the water squeezed out

1 small-to-medium zucchini, chopped.

1 C pre-cooked chicken, chopped

1 Tbsp fresh basil or Italian herb paste (which is mostly basil)

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

1-2 C shredded cheese, your choice

Preheat the oven to 350. Cook the quinoa. Mix quinoa, chicken, spinach and zucchini in a large bowl. Mix herbs, garlic and olive oil in a smaller bowl, and pour over the larger and mix well. Place the peppers in the baking dish and fill with the stuffing. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Store/freeze the rest of the stuffing for another day. (I'm stuffing portobellos for the grill for Father's Day) If you make the stuffing ahead of time, it's a pretty quick dinner, but the whole thing reheats quite well, and would be good to grab for lunch the day after.