Southwest Stuffed Peppers + Mango Lime Margarita

In case you missed yesterday’s post, today is World Food Day. FEED Projects asked me to help spread the word on their goal to provide 1 million meals for children in need and inspire people to come together and share a meal. It’s not too late! You can donate right here, every little bit helps. Just $1 can provide TEN meals for a hungry child. Please take a moment.

For my meal, I rummaged in my kitchen and realized I had all the trimmings for Southwest stuffed peppers. My family used to make stuffed peppers but I always much more interested in the mixture inside the pepper than the pepper itself. But my taste buds have changed and now stuffed pepper is now on the list of things I eat. Mostly, I can’t resist any opportunity to break out my jalapeños and cumin.

And for those of you who want a Thirsty Thursday post, your cocktail will be served soon! I’m not going to leave you high and dry, so to speak.

Ingredients

Olive oil

Salt + pepper

Yellow onion, 1 cup chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 jalapeño, chopped (and seeds removed)

1 can, yellow corn

Several cups, halved cherry tomatoes

1 patty, Trader Joe’s Quinoa Cowboy Veggie Burger (crumbled)

1 packet, Trader Joe’s Frozen Cooked Brown Rice

1 cup, cooked quinoa

1 teaspoon, cumin

1/2 teaspoon, oregano

Pepperjack cheese

Directions

1. Pour a small amount of olive oil into a skillet over medium-low heat.

2. Add chopped onions and stir.

3. Add jalapeño, corn and minced garlic. Stir for about 2 minutes.

4. Toss in Trader Joe’s Frozen Cooked Brown Rice and the prepared quinoa. Stir to thoroughly mix.

5. Crumble Trader joe’s Quinoa Cowboy Veggie Burger over the skillet and stir.

6. Add the halved tomatoes, cumin and oregano. Stir and let mixture sit for about 5 minutes.

7. Slice the peppers in half and remove seeds.

8. Brush insides with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Scoop mixture into peppers.

9. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

10. In a baking dish, place the peppers and cover with tin foil. Let them bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.

11. If so desired, take the peppers out and place a slice of pepperjack cheese on top. Place back in the oven and remove once the cheese is bubbling and/or browned.

Sidebar: I got my inspiration to write “FEED” in cheese from my uncle. Growing in a big family, we would all get together for Taco Night. Us kids would tell our uncle what we wanted in our tacos and to keep the orders straight, my uncle would create our initials out of cheese slices. Pretty genius, right?

The tradition stuck and according to my parents, we went to a Mexican restaurant when I was about 5 or so and I was very confused why my taco did not have a big “L” on it.

I’m so excited to help spread the message about FEED’s awesome mission. How excited? I think these dancing peppers speak volumes (click the image below!).