Clay's Stuffed Peppers

This was one of the first dinners Clay made for me when we started dating. Needless to say, this recipe carries some sentimental value, but it also is just plain yummy. Over the years, we've made different variations, but so far I think this one is our favorite.

 Ingredients:
6 large bell peppers (any color)
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 jalapeño pepper, diced
1 cup cooked rice (we used a wild rice mix)
1 1/4 cup diced tomatoes
10 oz. lean ground turkey breast
7 oz spicy Italian sausage
Barbecue Sauce (we used Sweet Baby Ray's)
1/2 reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
Sriracha hot chile sauce (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook rice according to package directions. While the rice is cooking, cut the top of the peppers off and emptying out the inside. Save half of the tops though as they will become part of the stuffing. Dice tops of peppers, jalapeño and onion.

Cook turkey and sausage together in a pan. When meat is about halfway cooked, add in onion, jalapeño and the diced pepper tops. Mix together and cook for about one minute. Mix in tomatoes.

Poke holes with a toothpick in the bottom of the peppers (3-4 per pepper). Fill each pepper halfway with meat/veggie mixture.

Add two tablespoons barbecue sauce, and then fill the rest of the way with meat mixture.

 Place peppers on a cooking rack on top of a pan to catch any drippings (or a roasting pan if you have one...mine seems to be MIA at the moment)

Bake peppers in the oven for 45 minutes on your lowest oven rack. Take them out and top each with 1 tbsp barbecue sauce and an even amount of cheese.

Bake for 10 minutes more, or until cheese is melted. Serve with extra barbecue sauce and Sriracha for dipping. (If you haven't had Sriracha before, a little bit goes a LONG way. If you don't like spicy food, I would definitely leave this out.)

Source: Lauren & Clay's kitchen!