Southwest Stuffed Peppers and Rice

I found that this was a super easy meal to throw together and into the slow cooker... set and forget it! Great meal after a long day at work and hardly any cleanup afterwards. If you want to make it spicier add more hot sauce or a minced jalapeno. I was a little apprehensive myself, about throwing dry peppers into a slow cooker without sauce, meaning I thought they would burn on the bottom. But to my surprise they didn't and the filling was so incredibly moist and flavorful!

Southwest stuffed pepper with ground turkey, onion,
garlic, homemade salsa,  corn & cheddar cheese

Ingredients
• 1/2 lb ground turkey
• 4 medium green bell peppers, tops cut off & seeds removed
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 3/4 c homemade salsa
• 3/4 c frozen corn
• 1 T cornmeal
• 1/8 T Frank's hot sauce
• 1/4 t each of Salt & Pepper
• 1 t dried oregano
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 c shredded extra sharp cheddar
• Salsa & plain Greek yogurt to top each pepper

1. Mix all the ingredients together except for peppers and cheese in a large bowl with your hands.
2. Stuff the peppers with the turkey mixture. Wrap each pepper in foil leaving top open and set inside slow cooker.
3. Cover and cook on low in slow cooker for 5 - 6 hours. When peppers are tender, top each with some cheese and cook on high in slow cooker until cheese has melted. Unwrap peppers, top with salsa and Greek yogurt and serve with rice if desired.

Recipe adapted from Southwest Slow Cooking Cookbook

I nestled the stuffed peppers on top of brown rice & quinoa mixture that I get from Costco. All you do is pop it in the microwave for 90 seconds and it comes out perfect! It was a nice addition to this tasty meal - gives it an earthly flavor or something. Since I made the entire recipe's worth, I did not top 2 of the peppers with cheese as the recipe indicates. Instead I took them out and froze them. When we go to cook them later I will add the cheese once they are heated through.

Some other tips I have for this one is to chop up the tops of the peppers that you slice off in the beginning and add to your stuffing mixture! Also, look for peppers that have 4 bumps on the bottom so they will stay standing upright both in the slow cooker and on your plate!

Enjoy!