Quinoa stuffed red bell peppers

So I've been lazy. I cook a lot, but I always forget to take pictures. And then I'm too lazy to blog about it. Mea culpa. I'm going to do better.

Thus far, I have kept my New Year's resolution to only buy organic meat--from whole foods or PCC because I trust them more. As a result I have been eating more vegetarian dishes, which has been delicious. My lovely friend Caitlin turned me on to quinoa, which is a miraculous and tasty little grain--a complete protein unto itself! Say it with me: "keen wa." Got it?

Sometime I will share the delicious garlicky quinoa salad recipe that I found. For now, I will just share what I made last night -- red bell peppers stuffed with quinoa. Healthy! Full of veggies! I slighly modified a recipe I found online because I didn't feel like buying celery or mushrooms and I couldn't find poblano peppers so I substituted a jalapeno. Really, you could make this with any number of different kinds of veggies--whatever you happen to have on hand.

Ingredients:
2 TBSP olive oil
1 medium onion
1 jalapeno pepper
1 TBSP cumin
3 cloves garlic
1 can diced tomatoes (drained, liquid reserved)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1 1/2 cups grated pepper Jack cheese
4 large red bell peppers, halved lenghwise, ribs removed.

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and jalapeno and cook about 5 minutes. Add cumin and garlic and saute 1 minute. Stir in drained tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes until most liquid has evaporated.

Stir in quinoa carrots and 1 3/4 cups water. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Add black beans and 1 cup of cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350. Pour liquid from tomatoes in bottom of baking dish.

Fill each pepper half with heaping 3/4 cup quinoa mixture and place in baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 40 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle each pepper iwth 1 TBSP of remaining cheese. Bake 15 minutes more until tops are browned. Let stand 5 minutes. Drizzle peppers with pan juices before serving.