Spooky Sausage Stuffed Peppers

Looking for a fun, relatively easy dinner idea you can do with your kids? Well, Olivia and I just got done experimenting in the kitchen, and we created these delicious stuffed peppers that hit all my important bases: They are EASY, they are FUN, they are HEALTHY, COLORFUL, and DELICIOUS! And I could talk for hours on the health benefits of peppers, but I'll spare you. :) You can Google it instead. ;)

Here's what you need:
-20 ounces ground turkey sausage
-2 eggs
-4 celery stalks
-1 red onion
-1 tomato
-6 ounces Parmesan cheese
-1 heaping tsp. minced garlic (or 2 cloves)
-1/2 tsp. Himalayan sea salt
-1 T pepper
-2 T Italian seasoning

So, here's the fun part: Get your kids involved! Cooking together can be so much fun- and an added benefit is a kid who helps cook a meal almost ALWAYS wants to eat the meal! They love to try what they have worked so hard to make. It might take an extra ten minutes in the kitchen, but it'll save you that ten minutes of complaining at dinner time.

The first thing we did was wash and hollow out our peppers by chopping off the tops and using a paring knife to clean the seeds out of the inside. We chose peppers with stems still attached to make them look even more like pumpkins! And don't worry- Olivia did not handle the knife. ;) Next, we cut a few triangles in them to make some cute faces. It only took a minute, and by the giggles I was hearing, I could tell Olivia was excited! The next step is to mix your stuffing!

Take your two beaten eggs and add it to your raw turkey sausage. Never forget that you are dealing with raw meat- it has to be handles carefully and hands must be washed before and after preparing. I had Olivia wear a glove to help me mix everything up. Spices, onion, celery, tomato, cheese and egg all get put in with the meat and hand mixed- she loved the way it was squeezing through her hands! It was fun to talk about the various ingredients and textures while we cooked. The final step is to stuff the peppers full of stuffing, put the lids on,  and place them in a foil lined baking dish for easy cleanup.

Bake them at 350 degrees for one hour, then remember to check the temperature! You want them cooked all the way through to the center and temping at at least 165 degrees. The nutrition for these per serving (one stuffed pepper) is as follows:

- 300 Calories

-10 g. Carbs

-26 g. Protein

-4 g. Sugar

If you are doing the 21 Day Fix, you are looking at about 1-2 red containers and 1 green per serving. What a fun and delicious meal- I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it, and soon will eating it. Have a gorgeous day!