Leftovers --> Stuffed Peppers

Facts of life: Suanne hates leftovers. Suanne hates processed food (I'm looking at you condensed soup). Suanne also hates wasting food and taking obscene amounts of time to make a meal.

So what does she do when she has a cup of tofu casserole and half a cup of chinese sliced mushrooms? She reinvents dinner - and makes it look good to boot. These would look fantastic for entertaining and just replace the leftovers with other yummy things, like fresh mushrooms, sausage, quinoa, cilantro, salsa... You get the idea. If it goes will with peppers, you're golden.

Stuffed Peppers
3/4 cup stuffing + 1 pepper = 1 serving. Today's recipe came out with about 4 servings so I'm going to halve the recipe here since I bet you don't want leftovers either.
Total time = 30 minutes prep and 30 min in the oven.


1 cup of leftover stir fry. Will also work with pasta sauce, possibly mac n cheese, or rice casserole. Try it and find out! The less carbs, and the more veggies or meat, the better.
4oz of chicken, boneless, skinless, diced. (Leftover is fine here too)
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp tomato paste
3/4 cup spinach, cooked and drained.
big pinch of oregano
tiny pinch cayenne and cumin
two red peppers - medium sized.
1 mozzarella stick
1 tbsp cream cheese
parmesan or bread crumbs for topping (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the baking rack in the middle of the oven.
2. Heat up your saucepan on high with a tsp of olive oil. Saute the garlic, then the onions for a minute or two.
3. Add the raw chicken (if applicable.)
4. Add tomato paste. Toss in all your leftovers here and reheat them. Try not to add in extra water - you want a moist stuffing, but not soggy. When you've incorporated everything together, turn the heat off.
5. Now take the mozzarella and shred it.
6. Wash your peppers and take a look at them - you want to figure out how to cut them to get the most stuffable space. Most of the time people remove the stem and stuff through the top. I had a curvy pepper so I slit mine sideways. Slice a bit from the bottom so it stands up.
7. Take a baking pan with walls that are a few inches high. I used a glass 9x9 cake pan. Wipe the bottom with a few drops of olive oil.
8. By now the stuff in the pan should have cooled off. Stick it all in the food processor and give it a few pulses. Add the mozzarella and cream cheese. Just aim to get rid of the big chunks and make sure to scrap down the sides. If it doesn't look you have enough stuff to fill your two peppers, you can consider adding nuts, leftover rice, or more veggies!
9. Stuff the peppers. The stuffing doesn't expand so feel free to make a big mound on top. If you like, press breadcrumbs and/or parmesan cheese on top of the stuffing mix. Stand the peppers up in the baking dish.
10. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes, until the pepper is cooked through. Since the inside is cooked already, don't worry about undercooking it.
11. Remove the peppers from the oven and let them stand for about 10 minutes. Then devour!