Hello foodie friends!

I know it has been a while since my last foodie post but here I am making yummy food and I wanted to share. If you have been following me for a while you probably know I nourish my body with mostly plants and I LOVE it for the most part. Some days I crave meats and cheese and I will usually have a bite of something or make a delicious organic meal at home so I know that when I am eating these foods they are the best quality. However, this recipe right here does not need ANY meat or cheese! I found some vegan bacon at Sprouts – Sweet Earth Foods Benevolent Bacon is pretty darn good. I would not go eating it by the slice because to me bacon is bacon and nothing replaces it, but I will add this to a tofu scramble and the vegan bacon really packs in the flavor in these peppers…like BAM!

I have set an intention to try to make one new dish a week to keep me excited about eating plant-based. I always dread the prep time that it takes to create delicious meals but I got creative, and this one only takes about 30 minutes and is a quick cleanup. Stuffed peppers are very popular and I know this is nothing new but wait until you try this dish. And when you remember how easy it was to make you will add this to your menu, weekly!

Stuffed pepper, huh? I have used green peppers (mostly because the organic green peppers are cheapest) BUT red peppers have more vitamin C in them so I would prefer those. Use whatever peppers you like or have on hand. These are all suggested ingredients that I like. The rice I love for this dish is a turmeric precooked rice that I found at Sprouts. I will link it here. Feel free to replace anything. If you aren’t able to use the Sweet Earth Foods bacon, I would suggest spicing this up a bit more – I would use salt, pepper, cumin, and smoked paprika at a minimum if I didn’t have access to the bacon. You can also try any delicious plant-based, smoky seasoned meat alternative. You just might LOVE it.

Ingredients:

• 2 LARGE peppers, whole with tops cut off
• 1/4 red onion, diced
• 8 oz cooked rice (I used a turmeric one – see label below)
• 1 package Sweet Earth bacon slices
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (let sit for 10 minutes before baking garlic)
• 1/2 can organic black beans
• 1/2 can organic corn
• 1 tsp sunflower/olive oil
• salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Slice tops off of peppers and shave off any weird lumps on the bottom so they will sit flat once stuffed. Set aside. Save the tops and dice up to save for later. Feel free to add a small handful into the stuffing if you want.

Add bacon into skillet and saute for 3-4 minutes on each side. Remove bacon from skillet and let cool. Once cool enough to cut, dice vegan bacon into small pieces.

Place empty peppers into a cast iron skillet (casserole dish works too), drizzle with olive oil and bake for 5 minutes and then flip and bake for five more minutes. In the meantime you can make your stuffing.

Combine diced onions, peppers, bacon, cooked rice*, corn, black beans, and minced garlic into a bowl and stir. Season with salt to taste. So by that I mean take a bite and see what you think – does it need anything else? Once you love it, Scoop the stuffing into your peppers and pack it in there. I just dumped the whole bowl of stuffing mixture into the pan. Bake peppers with stuffing for another 10 minutes. Time to sit down, relax and enjoy your meal!

*I use an organic turmeric rice in this but I think it will be great with any rice!

Please let me know if you try this in the comments!