One morning I woke up craving stuffed peppers. You know the cheesy rice & meat filled ooey gooey kind, that you ate growing up that you can never make as good as your mother made them? But it was a cold and rainy day so I was thinking I would try this stuffed pepper sensation in a good soup. Still having quinoa on the brain, I decided to skip the rice all together for this recipe and opt for a healthier option (quinoa) without sacrificing the flavor.
I went into the recipe kind of expecting it to be a total failure because I had no guide what-so-ever. But remember how I said my best recipes come from just using what I have on hand, to try and make a new recipe? Winging it when it comes to cooking is kind of my thing, and this recipe is the best proof. I was so surprised at the flavor of this soup and I think Ralph was equally as surprised about how delicious it was. I kept saying things all day like, ” don’t get your hopes up for supper, this may be a total disaster!” Luckily that was not the case.
This soup isn’t a whole lot of work either. Once you get everything in the pot you just let it heat all day and make your house smell amazing. You could make this in your crock pot instead of on the stove if that’s your thing. The recipe says “chopped” for all the veggies but we like things chunky around here so I left my veggies a little bigger. You can adjust that if you would like.
- 1 container chicken broth (32 ounces)
- ½ cup uncooked red quinoa
- 1 yellow pepper, chopped
- 1 orange pepper, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 4 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 jar of chunky, mild salsa
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 handful fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
- ½ can of any kind of beer
- 1 cup water
- ½ tablespoon salt
- ½ tablespoon pepper
- In a large pot on low heat, combine chopped peppers, chicken broth, salsa, parsley and cilantro.
- In another skillet, fry up the ground beef. Drain and add to your large pot.
- In the same skillet (rinsed out), heat chopped onions and celery with the beer on medium heat until onions are translucent and celery has changed color.
- Add entire celery/onion/beer mixture to your large pot.
- Add uncooked quinoa, and water to the large pot.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Cover and heat on low for at least 3 hours but up to 8.
- Add cheese 10 minutes before serving.
AHH the weekend is here again and we are excited for it! Last weekend (Mother’s day weekend) was great minus the fact that I was battling migraines all weekend. I made the mistake of drinking REAL caffeinated coffee on Friday after months of drinking decaf, and it welcomed my migraines back almost immediately. NEVER AGAIN. At least I know that caffeine is my migrane trigger I suppose! We still managed to do our family Color Burst 5k, and go to a couples comedy night at church featuring Kerri Pomarolli and her husband Ron McGehee. They were absolutely hilarious…we loved their act! Ralph let me take a good long nap on Mother’s day which might possibly be the best gift ever, because if you know me, I NEVER nap. And then we spent time with the best mom’s in the world–all in all, a dream weekend, migraines aside. My boys treated me well, but then again, they always do.
