I am just over halfway through this Spent program, and I couldn’t be happier that I did this. I mean–WOW! But that’s for another post. One thing I’ve really been surprised by is how much delicious food I can still eat. At the moment, I’m sugar-free, booze-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, corn-free, fake-food-free. So it’s oodles of fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, and seeds for me. I think these mushroom-quinoa stuffed bell peppers are one of the most satisfying and tasty meals I’ve had while doing this program. Because I live for leftovers, the recipe below yields about 10 servings. We ate them over the course of a week, and sometimes I just ate the stuffing by itself. As always, I don’t measure, so measurements are best guesses/general guidelines.

Ingredients

• 1.5 c. dry quinoa, cooked according to package directions
• 3 c. water (for quinoa)
• 1 pint mushrooms (I used baby king oyster, among others), diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• bell peppers, halved lengthwise, deveined and seeded*
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil

Procedure

1. Rinse quinoa thoroughly under cool water. Combine 1 part quinoa with 2 parts water in a saucepan. Bring to boil, cover and simmer until water is absorbed. (Essentially, if you can cook rice, you can cook quinoa.) Set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a skillet, then sautee onion until translucent, about 5-7 minutes.
3. Add mushrooms to skillet over low heat, stirring frequently until they start to release some juices.
4. Fold onion and mushroom mix into the quinoa.
5. Stuff mixture into bell peppers and bake at 350F until the top browns slightly and the peppers begin to soften, approximately 25 minutes. (Please note–my oven is wonky, so cooking times tend to be off. Sorry guys!)

As always, these are gluten-free and vegan. If you have cheese-eating friends and family, I admit they taste delicious with some muenster melted on top, but I’m afraid that’s no longer an option for me. I’m eager to make my own nutritional yeast cheeze sauce for these sometime. If you try it, let me know what you think, and please put any suggestions in the comments.

*When I made the stuffing, I think it yielded about 10 servings, or 5 bell peppers’ worth. Again, if you run out of peppers, this is awesome on its own or as a side.