Stuffed Stuff

The markets are the only indicator of summer that I have around here. It's rainy, it's cold & I am not planning any beach vacations *sigh*. I don't deserve any pity though, because I'm still able to get all the fresh goodies that my farmer's market has to offer. This weekend, I went out & got some freakish pepper tomatoes and a round zucchini. They say that the pepper tomato is like a bell pepper, but once you have it, you'll never go back to peppers. That sounded like a challenge. I had a red bell pepper in the fridge, so I decided it was time to take all 3 veggies & make Stuffed Stuff.

Stuffed Stuff
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow pepper tomato (or other large tomato)
1 round zucchini
1 cup quinoa, cooked
200 g mushrooms, chopped finely
1/2 red pepper, chopped
100 g ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
sprig each of rosemary & thyme, chopped (or use 1/2 tsp dried)
1 c tomato sauce

Cutting around stems, create a lid for pepper, tomato & zucchini. Seed, or with the zucchini, scoop out the inside, and set aside. Save zucchini bits.
Sautee scooped out zucchini, mushrooms, chopped pepper, garlic, onion & herbs until translucent. Add beef & continue cooking until it is cooked through. Mix with quinoa.
Stuff veggies with quinoa mixture.
Place stuffed veggies in baking dish & place tomato sauce around.
Bake at 170° for 30 minutes, or until done.

I loved the fact that the quinoa got crispy. I also loved the tomato. I'm not too sure if it will keep me off of bell peppers indefinitely, but it'll keep me away from bell peppers as long as the tomatoes are available. Given this German summer, that might be 3 more days.