LC Stuffed Green Peppers/meatloaf

[DoorInward]

Stuffed Green Peppers

1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1 lb (one tube) Jimmy Dean sausage (regular flavor)
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder (2g)
2 tbsp tomato paste (4g)
1 tbsp dehydrated minced onion (4g)
2/3 cup shredded colby cheese (or cheddar)
2 eggs
1/8 cup almond meal (optional, but helps it hold together)
3 med bell peppers halved lengthwise and seeded/cleaned (17g)
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes (10g)

Preheat the oven to 350° (F)
Mix beef, sausage, spices, tomato paste, onion, cheese, almond meal and eggs in a bowl by hand until well blended.
Stuff each half of a green pepper with meat mixture, enough that it forms a "mound" over the top. Place in a casserole dish meat side up. Turn any remaining meat into meatballs and fit in alongside the stuffed peppers.
Pour 1 cup crushed tomatoes carefully over peppers, allowing it to coat the exposed meat. add 1/4 cup water to the pan around the peppers (more can be added later if sauce is not thin enough).
Cover, bake 35 minutes covered at 350°. Remove cover, bake 35 minutes more.
Serving=1 (a stuffed half pepper), makes 6. very filling. Low on carbs. Carb count will vary with the amount eaten and size of peppers, but the entire batch is only 37, so doing the math...each serving will be just over 6 max if you keep the amount of sauce reasonable, most of that coming from the pepper itself.

Alternate versions (lower on carbs):

Take meat mixture and form into smaller (1.5' dia) meatballs. Bake dry (without sauce) for about 35 min or until done--they are still delicious this way and make great hors d'oevres
or...
Pour crushed tomatoes over meatballs as above, add 1/4-1/2c water to pan and small amount of chopped green pepper for flavor.

This meat mixture (minus green peppers) also makes a wicked breadless meatloaf. Just increase the almond meal to 1/4 cup and coat top with crushed tomatoes if desired.

[Sari]

That sounds so good, thanks for posting that...do you think green peppers would be better than red?

[DoorInward]

As long as they are bell peppers it will work, just be aware that some colors of bell pepper are sweeter than others, so there may be a few additional grams of carbohydrate.