Recipe: Stuffed Peppers

I try to make at least one different recipe every week to mix up some of my favorites.  One thing that I always like but forget about a lot is stuffed peppers.  My mom and I were walking a week or so back when she mentioned they were having that for dinner.  It stuck in my head, so I got the ingredients to make it a couple days later.  There are many varieties of stuffed peppers, and I think I have made different ones every time I've made them.  You really can put almost anything you want in a stuffed pepper, but here are the ingredients I used:

Ingredients:  (I didn't put measurements because you really just put the amount you like or need)
Bell pepper, I got one red and one yellow (I don't really care for the green as much, it's worth the extra $.75 or so to buy the other ones in my opinion)
Brown rice
Chicken Apple Sausage, (I use aidell's sausages which I think are fantastic! I have used them in many recipes, they are less fat and I love the flavor of the apple with the sausage).
onion (red or white)
salsa
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese, lite
black beans
cumin
crushed red pepper

Directions:
1.  I first cut the tops of my peppers off.  Make sure you have a large enough hole at the top to stuff the pepper, but not too large to take off a lot of the pepper.  I also sliced just a little bit off the bottoms to let the pepper stand more easily in the baking dish.

2. Per my dad's advice, I put the peppers in a pot of boiling water to soften them up for about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, cook rice according to package.
3. In a medium hot saute pan, I sauteed onion with garlic and about a half or third of an orange bell pepper I had in the fridge.  I added the chicken sausage and cooked until all items were browned.  Once they were brown, I added the rice and stirred it all together. At this point, you could add any spices you like! As I've said before, I love spicy food, so I dashed some crushed red pepper and cumin.

4.  Next, I spread a bit of salsa on the bottom of my baking dish, set the peppers in, and began to stuff.  I put the rice mixture in first, about one third-half full.  Then added some black beans, about a 1/4 cup or so of salsa, and topped it all with the cheese.

5.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or so.  Keep an eye on it and take them out once the cheese is bubbling and just beginning to brown on the edges.

I thought these turned out great and Ross really liked them as well.  They are pretty standard stuffed peppers for the most part, and remember you can always put any ingredients you want. I like that these are pretty low-calorie as well; if you are counting/watching your calories, use lite cheese, and you don't really have to use a lot on top either.   My dad uses hamburger meat instead of sausage.  You can use any veggies, white rice, no rice, corn, etc.  I also dashed mine with a little bit of hot sauce also, gotta have some kick!  Hope you enjoy!
~Kate