Day 8 of the 30 Day COVID-19 Dinner Challenge: Stuffed Peppers Ninja Style

June 18, 2020 ~ There is good reason Sophie is a kitchen dog. She’s super amazing at catching food tossed to her. Not all dogs are. She excels at it. Her effort encourages me to do it whenever possible which encourages her to continue being a kitchen dog. We are both winning. Sophie goes for a two to three-mile walk with Kate nearly every day. She can afford the extra calories that get tossed her way.  P.S. she only gets food that won’t make her sick.

Stuff peppers was not a favorite of my kids or Tom. Apparently, it’s still not a fav of his since he left the peppers on his plate and just ate what was inside.

Side note – he has his left elbow on a cushion because his left arm is skin and bones. The ALS has whittled away the muscles on this arm. Putting it on a hard surface not only hurts but increases the chances of a shearing injury. Shearing is when the skin is on bone without the benefit of muscle or fat to protect it and the skin tears. It’s difficult to heal a shirring injury. The best thing to do is to avoid getting them.

Stuffed Peppers using the Ninja Instant Pot – from Cooking Light: https://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/instant-pot-turkey-stuffed-peppers?amp=true

Confession: this is my first time using the Ninja. It’s Kate’s. It’s intimidated me to even think of having one. Where would I store it? How much effort does it take to use and clean it? I know, crazy, right? I’m sold now. Can’t wait to get my own. 

4 large multicolored bell peppers, tops cut off and chopped, peppers hollowed and seeded – I used six. There was so much meat mixture I had to. The grocery store did not have green peppers available. We went with red and yellow.

1 pound 93% lean ground turkey – I used ground beef because that’s what we had on hand.

3/4 cup cooked brown rice

1/3 cup seasoned breadcrumbs – I used gluten-free Panko breadcrumbs

3/4 cup reduced-sodium marinara sauce, divided – used Ragu for two reasons I don’t make sauce and it’s what was in the pantry.

1/4 cup minced onion

1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/4 cup)

3 tablespoons chopped parsley – did not use

2 teaspoons tomato paste

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Black pepper to taste

1 large egg, beaten

I found the recipe I used to be incorrect. The mixture is supposed to fill four peppers. It filled six. The stuffed peppers took longer to cook than the directions indicated. We took them out at eighteen minutes and they were not cooked in the middle. We sliced them in half and cooked them longer at 400 degrees instead of 350. We had to finish cooking them in two shifts because the split peppers did not all fit in together like they did when they were whole.

We were concerned they would not be filling enough yet they were. We each had one and a half peppers. Kate and I gave it a repeatable thumbs up recipe rating. Tom, not so much.

Total calories: 399 for the win.

Until the next time!