As I told you, I’ve exhausted my Fiercefoodie budget for the month (or until Greg forgets) yesterday on my Patron. Nevermind the fact that he ate 2 cupcakes.  Ummmhmmm…. Anyway, I noticed that I have no breakfast contributions on the site so I decided to try to get some daylight shots for a change (supposedly a key factor in food photography) and scramble some eggs.  Plus, I was in no hurry to dirty my recently cleaned kitchen, so a one-pot dish was ideal.  After a check around the fridge, I found a couple slices of oven roasted deli turkey, deli Muenster cheese, a little white cheddar, a shallot, sundried roasted tomatoes and a little heavy cream.

Of course, you can use ANYTHING for the scramble. Scrambles are quick and more forgiving than trying to fold your eggs over into an omelette. I can do it though (very slowly however) so don’t sleep on my skills. : ) But with the scramble, you get to stuff it with a lot more goodies that otherwise wouldn’t fit in that thin little envelope. Usually, I use leftover mushrooms, onions and peppers but apparently I haven’t cooked anything lately (if you let Mr. Ungrateful tell it, lol) Hey! Birthday girls eat out.

Stuffed Bell Pepper

6 – Bell Peppers (Yellow, Red, Orange)*
1 ½ lb ground turkey
1 cup uncooked Brown Rice (add a bouillon cube to the water before boiling)
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes with chiles and peppers
1 8oz can tomato sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 can corn
1 half container white mushrooms, sliced
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
3- 3 ½  cups shredded cheddar cheese
Salt
Pepper
Chopped Parsley Flakes
Sour cream

Prepare rice according to package with bouillon cube or chicken stock in place of water.
Prepare the peppers by removing the tops and digging out the seeds, etc.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add peppers for 4-5 minutes.
Remove from water immediately rinse and set aside.
After they cool, test to be sure they can stand alone. If not, cut a little from the bottom to make them flat.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Coat the bottom of a large skillet with EVOO begin to heat the pan and add seasoned ground turkey, onion and diced pepper tops (minus stems of course), garlic and mushrooms.
Add brown sugar and cayenne pepper.
After meat is browned, drain. (Mushrooms release a lot of water but the meat should be pretty lean already)
Add rice (which should be about 2 ½ cups), diced tomatoes, corn, tomato paste and sauce.
Continue cooking. (The goal is to simmer off some of the water that is released from the tomatoes)
 Fold 1 ½ c. shredded cheese into meat mixture and remove from heat.    
Stuff peppers with hot meat mixture.
Bake at 350 for 5 minutes.
Top with remaining cheese and continue to bake for 7-10 minutes (or until cheese is melted)
Once melted, removed from oven and sprinkle parsley flakes on top.
Serve hot with a small dollop of sour cream.

* – The yellow, orange and red (in that order) are the sweetest of the varieties. If you have picky eaters, the green may be overwhelming for them. Besides, the variety of colors makes for a beautiful presentation.

NOTE: You can stuff these peppers with just about ANYTHING!!! In fact, I might try to stuff tomatoes or squash next. This is probably one of the EASIEST recipes I’ve ever made with stuff I had on hand. Man, it is sooo exciting when you can use what you already have. It’s the little things…