Stuffed Peppers

I am still very much on my veggie kick. After a weekend full of BBQ, burgers and the meaty like I headed to Whole Foods tonight on a vegetable mission. If you are in any way familiar with my weeknight eating habits, you know I'm a huge fan of chicken sausage. Any type. And it just happened to be on sale today. So I grabbed up some andouille, some peppers, some kale, and ciliegine mozzarella (the cherry tomato sized cheese in water) and came home with a grand idea. Stuffed peppers.

I threw some brown Texmati rice in my rice cooker and filled it to the brim with chopped kale, a few spices and a scant amount of salt and let it steam away. While that was going on I chopped up the sausage and cheese and cut up the peppers. Once it was all ready to go, into the peppers it all went, the cheese pressed on top of the mixture and tucked into the oven. And then I went out on the balcony to watch the storm.

Stuffed Peppers
3-4 large bell peppers- cut in half and de-seeded and de-stemmed
3/4 c. Texmati brown rice
1 1/2 c. water or stock
2 c. kale
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt, plus to taste
2 pre-cooked andouille chicken sausage- minced
6-8 ciliegine mozzarella- halved

1. Preheat oven to 400. In a rice cooker add in the rice, oregano, paprika, chili powder and salt. Top with the chopped kale and pour water/stock over. Cover and cook. When done, toss with a fork and add in the pre-cooked sausage. Mix well.

2. Place halved peppers in a deep baking dish and spoon the rice/sausage mixture into each one. Push in 2 of the halved ciliegine mozzarella into each stuffed pepper half. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until peppers are soft and cheese is nicely browned.

A few shots prior to the storm