Beyond Meat filled Bell Peppers

Action:

During a pre-Christmas shopping trip to Price Chopper, I found a steal I could not say no to! Beyond Meat ground beef was discounted to due the sell-by date approaching (1 day away). The store discounted the meat substitute by $3, making it somewhat reasonable to buy. I immediately stored the product in my freezer to use for future dishes. I kept it in the freezer until 2/10, about 1.5 months past its “best by” date.

I did not use a recipe but would intuitively mix ingredients together based on their expiration date and their availability. First, I used my pressure cooker to make a batch of quinoa. Meanwhile, after the meat substitute was defrosted in the fridge overnight, I started roasting some onion before tossing the beyond meat into the pan as well. Once it reached the right consistency, I added it to quinoa, one egg, and old, leftover pasta sauce (tomato-salsa). Next, I cut the top of two bell peppers and filled them with seasoned stuffing. I topped it off with some shredded mozzarella. The last step before baking the whole meal at 400°F for 30 minutes was coating a red onion in extra virgin olive oil and nutritional yeast to create a bed for my two peppers. The last and final step was to add some peanuts to the onions once they came out of the oven.

In conclusion, this was a great cooking experience. I had a lot of fun with it, especially knowing that I saved a few items from going to the landfill. Additionally, the meal was very nutritious, and I even had some beyond meat mixture leftovers which I used to make veggie burger patties the next day. Overall, this was a fun cooking experience. I would say the whole dish took about 1.5 hours in total, including cooking a batch of quinoa and having some of the stuffing left over for future use.

Be creative with your leftovers to produce sustainable and delicious dishes. Stay Sustainilicious.

Leftovers used: 1lb of Beyond Meat, 6 Oz. Pasta Sauce otherwise discarded

Creativity level: 7.3/10

Yum Factor: 8.4/10

Ingredients (as always without any quantities as I believe you should go by taste and feel):

- Beyond Meat Ground Beef substitute

- Bell Peppers

- Quinoa

- Tomato Sauce

- Red Onion

- Peanuts

- EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

- Nutritional Yeast

- Shredded Mozzarella

- Egg

- Salt

- Pepper

- Cumin

- Chili Powder

Possible Substitutes:

- Rice instead of Quinoa

- Ground Beef instead of Beyond Meat

- Onion instead of Red Onion

- Parmesan instead of Mozzarella

Possible Additions:

- Paprika

- Hot Sauce

- Sprinkle of Soy Sauce