Italian Style Stuffed Peppers

You can find Nancy Fox sharing more delicious and simple recipes over on her website, Skinny Kitchen. 

Here’s a simple and hearty meat sauce, stuffed into colorful bell peppers and baked until dreamy and delicious. Each serving has 226 calories, 6g fat and just 4 Weight Watchers SmartPoints. I love using bell peppers because they make a wonderful low calorie vessel to stuff with so many options. 

Italian Style Stuffed Peppers

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Bake Time 45 minutes

Ingredients:

6 large red bell peppers, yellow or orange or a combination of colors (each about 3½ inches high and 3½ inches wide)

1 pound extra lean ground beef (96%) or ground turkey, see shopping tip

1 cup onions, chopped

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

1 (14-16 oz) jar pasta or pizza sauce

1 (14.5 oz) can chopped tomatoes, drained

1 teaspoon Italian seasonings

Black pepper, to taste

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

12 teaspoons Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cut off the top of 4 bell peppers about 1-inch down from top. Clean out seeds and membranes. Throw away the tops. Set aside.

3. In a large nonstick pan, brown ground beef, onions and garlic. Be sure to break up ground beef into small pieces as it cooks. Stir often, until beef is browned. Pour beef into a colander and drain excess fat in the sink. Add back to pan. Stir in pasta sauce, tomatoes, Italian seasoning, pepper and red pepper flakes. Mix well. Bring to boil, turn heat down to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Stuff each bell pepper with about ¾ cup beef mixture. Stand peppers upright in un-greased baking dish. Pour 1 cup water in the bottom of the pan to steam the peppers, while baking.

5. Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil. Sprinkle each with 2 teaspoons Parmesan cheese. Cook uncovered about 5 minutes more until cheese melts and peppers are soft.

6. These freeze great! Once cooled, wrap any leftovers well in plastic wrap and freeze.

Makes 6 servings. Each serving, 1 stuffed bell pepper

Shopping Tip

Most supermarkets sell extra lean ground beef. I used the 96% lean ground beef from Trader Joe’s. You could use ground turkey, if desired.

Weight Watchers SmartPoints 4
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 6

SKINNY FACTS: for 1 stuffed bell pepper
226 calories, 6g fat, 2g sat. fat, 43mg chol, 19g prot, 26g carbs, 4g fiber, 605mg sod, 8g sugar

FAT FACTS: for SmartPoints
153 calories, 2g sat. fat, 6g sugar, 17g protein

Be sure to check out Nancy’s other delicious stuffed pepper recipes, Skinny Cheeseburger Stuffed Peppers and Skinny Mexican Stuffed Peppers.