Turkey Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

I love to cook! One of my specialties (I think) are stuffed peppers. One day while browsing my cabinets and realized I had a ton of quinoa that I never use. I started looking at recipes online and I came across this awesome one from hungryhappens.com. Ground turkey quinoa stuffed peppers! SOOOO so soon good!! I'm in a good mood today so I decided I'll share my secret recipe with you guys!

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups COOKED quinoa
• 4 large bell peppers, sliced in half, lengthwise, seeds removed (any color!)
• 1 tsp olive oil (+ more later)
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 1 cup of chopped celery
• 1 lb extra lean ground turkey meat
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin

• sea salt to taste
• 2.5 tbs tomato paste
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 medium tomato, diced 
• bread crumb (optional... I don't use them though!)
• shredded mexi blend cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. In a large skillet, heat the 1 tsp olive oil on medium high.  Add to it the garlic, celery and onion sautee for a few minutes.
3. Next, add the the turkey and season with the garlic powder, cumin and salt.  Using a wooden spoon, break up the meat and keep stirring until no longer pink, cooked through and completely minced - about 5-7 minutes.
4. Then, stir in the tomato, 1/2 cup of chicken broth and tomato paste.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 more minutes.  Lastly, add the quinoa and combine all together.
5. Drizzle your baking dish with olive oil.  Then pour the remainder of the chicken broth into the dish.
6. Fill each pepper halve with the meat mixture and place in your baking dish.  Sprinkle each pepper top liberally with bread crumb (if desired). 
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes.  Remove from oven, sprinkle with cheese and place back in oven on broil, for 1 minute or until cheese is melted.

Here's what mine came out like!

Here's another secret too! I love when my stuffed peppers are extra soft. So before adding the turkey-quinoa mixture to the peppers and baking them put your peppers in the oven alone and bake them for an extra 15 minutes!

**Also a side of sweet potato fries goes great with these peppers!!!**