Easy Trader Joe’s Recipe: Turkey Stuffed Peppers
Easy Trader Joe’s Turkey Stuffed Peppers are an easy weeknight meal that combine turkey sauce, brown rice and cheese for a filling, delicious dinner.
This. is. a. good. one.
Stuffed peppers are not a meal that I grew up eating yet they taste like comfort to me. And as the weather is (finally!) starting to take a fall-like turn, it’s just the kind of meal I want this time of year.
It’s warm and cozy, gooey and cheesy and wholesome all at the same time. Is there a better combination? I don’t think so. AND! Demi (my #1 taster these days) happily gobbled this up, peppers and all.
In true TJ’s for dinner fashion, ingredients are minimal, flavor is NOT lacking and it comes together in about 20 minutes + some time in the oven.
Then dinner is on the table, and everyone is happy. Or at least that’s the ideal. How do you guys handle meal time as a family? Eat together? Kids eat and parents eat later? We have not mastered this and Demi eats about 2 minutes after we get home from picking her up and then Richie and I eat after she goes to bed. Not eating as a family is the one big mom guilt I have, so I’d love to hear how you handle dinners as a family!
So turkey stuffed peppers – here are the ingredients: turkey bolognese (or use simple turkey sauce), microwavable brown rice (or make the real deal), cheese, peppers (organic if possible, peppers are on the dirty dozen list) and some arugula or other greens for a simple side salad to round out the meal and add that extra dose of green vegetables. Easy peasy.
Let’s make dinner, shall we?
PrintTJ’s for dinner: turkey stuffed peppers
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 4 peppers (about 24 oz)
- 12 oz turkey bolognese (about 2 cups)
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
- 7 oz bag of arugula or lettuce
- dressing of choice or olive oil + vinegar
- salt, pepper, garlic powder (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Wash peppers and remove top, seeds and membranes.
- Prepare bolognese and rice as directed.
- Stir together bolognese, rice, 1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional) and 1/2 cup of cheese.
- Stand peppers in baking dish and divide rice mixture between the peppers.
- Top with remaining cheese and top baking dish with aluminum foil.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes, broiling for 2-3 minutes at the end if necessary to brown cheese.
- Meanwhile prepare salad: toss greens with favorite dressing or a simple combination of a drizzle of olive oil, splash of vinegar and salt & pepper.
- Serve!
great meal idea!
Omg! Making this next week for sure! I’m so excited!!
Question: Does Demi eat bell peppers with nothing on them? Andy and I are HUGE bell pepper fans, but Milo doesn’t like them ๐ It’s quite discouraging when I give him peppers and hummus and he uses one pepper slice to spoon the hummus into his mouth and by the end of the snack he has eaten a ton of hummus, and not one bite of the peppers. I personally like my peppers raw (sometimes I dip them in guacamole but mostly I eat them just raw and plain). I don’t like my peppers cooked because I feel like they are soggy and they have a more watery flavor. I love the snap and crunch of raw peppers and the sweet juiciness of them ๐. I’ve tried serving them to Milo cooked, raw, and I’ve served them with several different kinds of dips … but milo does not care for them even in the slightest. I have not tried them stuffed yet so this should be interesting …
To answer your question about dinner time … We eat dinner as a family every night. Andy gets home at different times each day so sometimes we have dinner at 5:30 and other days we don’t eat until after 7 o’clock. Days when we eat dinner late are days when Milo is snacking a lot in the evening until dinner is served. I know it isn’t the best practice, but sitting down together for mealtime is important to us! It’s one of those things that we still haven’t really figured out how to do as a family yet …
So funny about the peppers because Demi was the same way with raw ones, she would never eat them – when I served this to her, I cut everything up together and was surprised by how much pepper she ate because I had assumed she didn’t like them. It could have been the texture, or the other flavors that made this version more palatable. I’ll be curious if stuffed peppers can convince Milo so let me know how it goes!
Well you are doing a much better job at making family dinners happen then we are! I like that you are flexible with timing – I may need to loosen up on my self-imposed rules about when she eats and supplement with some snacks if dinner will be later. I actually have tonight’s dinner ready-to-go (yay slow cooker!) so maybe we’ll try eating as a family tonight, it’s important to me too, so I need to figure out a way to make it happen.
Nice one Emily. Thanks for contributing towards huge health of the people. We love your blog. Cheers!!!
Love the ease of the recipe, and really enjoy seeing meals that can be made from TJ items and don’t require a stop at a larger store. Stuffed peppers are one of my favorite meals, so I was really excited! However, I found them a little bland. That could be a result of an easier recipe with fewer ingredients, so I understand that you get what you’re asking for. With my leftovers, I mixed in some tomato and sausage pasta sauce and that helped a bit! This was a cheat work around, since they were already cooked. I think in the future I’d add some onions, italian seasoning, diced tomatoes, etc. But thank you so much for giving me a good base recipe to work off of! Really appreciate it.
Hi CJ, Thanks so much for the feedback! When I first started creating these easy trader joe’s recipe I gave myself a rule of only using five or less ingredients. Which definitely helps the ease of making, but not always on the flavor! HA. I also find that sometimes a little dusting of salt, some red pepper flakes, and some grated parmesan cheese can help. But NOTED! Appreciate you letting me know. ๐
The stuffed peppers were very good missing Garlic and more sauce but delicious