These delicious stuffed peppers come together easily for a low-carb comfort meal that everyone will enjoy. Experiment with different spices and flavours that suit your tastes!  The provolone cheese really adds to the “Philly Cheesesteak” aspect of this recipe, but if you don’t have provolone at the moment, use whatever cheese you like instead!  Inspired and adapted from: www.lowcarbmaven.com

Ingredients:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 4 medium green bell peppers (or any colour you wish)
• 1 small container sliced mushrooms (or for the non-mushroom-eating individual, 1 chopped red bell pepper)
• ½ cup onions, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 8 slices Provolone cheese (or any cheese you have on hand; each slice is equivalent to approximately 1oz or ¼ cup shredded) – feel free to add less cheese if you prefer.
• Salt, pepper and Montreal Steak Spice to taste

Directions:

1. Cut tops off of the peppers and remove remaining seeds & pith. Place in a microwave safe baking dish, cover, and cook for 3-4 minutes, depending on your microwave. Remove using tongs, pour out any accumulated water from the peppers.
2. Preheat oven to 350-degrees F and place rack in the middle.
3. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add oil and coat pan. Stir in mushrooms and let cook for 2-3 minutes, then add onions and stir, cooking until translucent and the mushrooms have reduced in size (2-3 minutes more). Remove the mixture from the pan. (Note – I followed this same method using diced red pepper instead of mushrooms, and it worked well. -Tiia)
4. Add the ground beef to the pan, breaking it up while cooking. When cooked through, add the mushroom (and/or pepper) and onion mixture back into the pan and season with salt, pepper and some Montreal Steak Spice until the flavour is to your liking.  Adding extra pepper really helps the beef flavour come out.
5. Arrange peppers on a cookie sheet, or in a Pyrex dish with higher edges to keep them upright. Lightly season peppers with salt and pepper.  Place 1 slice cheese in the bottom of each pepper and evenly divide the ground beef stuffing among them.
6. Bake for 20 minutes. Top with the remaining cheese and pop under the broiler to melt and brown.

Allowances:

Makes 4 servings – 1 stuffed pepper each. Count each serving as: 4 protein (group 6).