Quinoa and Vegetable Stuffed Peppers

Today was one of those non-stop Saturdays.  Early this morning I cooked up a batch of quinoa in my rice cooker and set it to cool in the fridge for this evening's culinary experiment.  (Now I know that not everyone likes quinoa and often it's because they think it looks weird.  Well, it does.  But it tastes yummy and is a good healthy thing to put in your belly.  So...close your eyes!)

Then I headed off to one of my churches.  (Have I mentioned that I am a minister to two small churches as well as a music teacher?)  I spent the morning painting the dining room ceiling...pink.  No, not really pink.  It was this really fabulous ceiling paint that goes on pink and turns white when it dries.  Fabulous invention!  Then it was a race home at noon to run errands like buying the hubby a new gas grill for Father's Day, a new ceiling fan for my bedroom, and all the seeds and seedlings for this summer's garden.  Oh, and groceries. Home again, home again and the garden got almost completely planted.  Will have to finish tomorrow.  

Now this is a cooking blog, so...here's what I made for dinner in Mamma Church's kitchen.  

I had bought two really lovely green peppers at my favorite vegetable stand called The Green Spot on KMD between Oakland and Waterville.  And when I say lovely, I mean lovely!   I cut the tops off and cleaned out the insides.

I diced up:
1 white onion
1/2 red pepper
the tops from the green peppers
a few mushrooms
some garlic

All that was sauteed for a few minutes in some olive oil.  Then I stirred in about half of the quinoa that I had cooked.  It was probably about a cup.  (The rest is in a baggie in the fridge for another adventure.)  To that I added some chopped fresh basil and a bit of Italian seasoning.  This mixture got stuffed into the lovely green peppers, topped with a small can of tomato sauce and a good handful of shredded mozzarella on each one.  The baking dish (yes, it was a vintage piece of Pyrex) was covered with foil and then baked at 350 for about an hour and 10 minutes...about how long it took to finish putting the seedlings into the ground.  

I had also purchased a few bunches of teeny weeny baby beet greens and steamed them for a side dish. 

Dinner was served in my favorite room of the house in the summer...the porch!  A lovely way to dine and a pretty darn tasty (and healthy) meal!