Stuffed Bell Peppers

I had multiple things dying in my refrigerator due in large part to myriad good intentions. Specifically I had a yellow and a green bell pepper that were threatening to get wrinkly skin if not consumed immediately. I also had some wonderful yellow and red grape tomatoes that were already wrinking. While I generally eat them like candy, I dont like them when they arent pretty any longer. Hey, I am from LA it should be expected that I am superficial regarding how things are visually represented! I am not one to waste tasty tomatoes though so I needed to use those too. My garlic was also starting to sprout, and I had some ground turkey in the freezer. So, apparently, bell peppers plus tomatoes plus garlic plus ground turkey makes me want to make stuffed peppers. Warning...I have never made stuffed peppers before, but I have to say that they turned out pretty damned good.


Stuffed Bell Peppers

2 bell peppers (ones that arent green tend to be sweeter in my experience)
1/2 pound ground turkey
1 pint of grape tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, diced
4 scallions, sliced until the green portion
1/4 cup flat leave parsley, chopped
1/4 cup basil, chopped
3/4 can canelli beans
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 egg white
grated parmesan
salt & pepper

Because my tomatoes were kinda sad looking I made a pseudo pasta sauce with them by cooking them down with chicken broth and seasoning them with the garlic and scallions. It was a pain in the ass to remove the skins but I prevailed! Plus, in the end I think the tomato concoction made the meat extremely moist.

Next I combined the tomato sauce mixture with the turkey, egg white, herbs, and canelli beans. I halved each of the bell peppers and filled each of them with 1/4 of the turkey mixture. I placed the peppers in a baking dish that I had coated with olive oil, after all, whats the point of cooking food if you cant get the damned things out of the container to eat. After topping them with the grated parm I stuck them in the oven at 375 for about 35 minutes or until the internal temp of the meat was 165.

I have developed a recent fondness for things that bake in the oven because you can generally tell when they are done when it starts to smell really good. The aroma is an efficient way of getting me out of my article-induced daze and allows me to not purchase a timer.

I let them cool for about 10 minutes and ate in my usual spot, directly over my laptop. I am sure that my eating location is less than ideal for both my life and the life of my laptop but the computer is 1) my way of contacting the outside world and 2) my resource for finding the articles that will bring me closer to writing my masters.