Sausage and Mushroom Stuffed Peppers

I grew up eating stuffed peppers made with love by my mom, and it was the first dish I cooked when I moved into my very first apartment after college!  I've since updated the classic with a healthy twist, which has surpassed the original!  When your mom makes the lightened version and exclaims, "I'll never go back to making the old version again," then you've successfully developed a mouth-watering and time-saving dinner that anyone can make :) Serves 4

What (your ingredients):

3 large bell peppers, halved and deseeded

1 box Rice and Wild Porcini Mushrooms (I used Lundberg)

1 16-oz. package Lean Turkey Breakfast Sausage (I used Jennie O)

1 small onion, thinly diced

½ 24-oz. jar Pasta Sauce (I used Trader Joe’s Rustico Pasta Sauce)

Optional: Shredded cheese for topping (highly recommended!)

How (your directions):

Preheat oven to 350˚F. 

Prepare rice according to box instructions.

While rice is cooking, place bell pepper halves in a large casserole dish, cover with tin foil, and bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, brown sausage in a large fry pan, stirring and crumbling into bite-size pieces.  Add diced onion and cook until onions become soft and translucent.

When rice and sausage are finished cooking, combine them together in the large fry pan. Add pasta sauce and stir until all ingredients are evenly distributed.

Remove bell peppers from oven, fill each halve with rice-sausage-sauce mixture, and top each one with ¼ cup of cheese, if using.

Bake in the casserole dish, covered with tin foil, for 20 minutes.

Then, remove foil and bake at 450˚F for 5 minutes.

Serve hot!

Enjoy!

Why (the science): As a trick to adding a lot of flavor to a dish that typically calls for ground beef, I use lean turkey sausage instead.  It packs a huge flavor punch without the guilt of saturated fat.  And trust me after years of making this quick dinner staple, you’ll prefer the turkey sausage in flavor!