Chicken-Filled Mini Peppers

Trolling around the grocery store for on-sale meats and fish is one of my favorite activities (don't be jealous). There will usually be something inventive, organic, and out of my budget on sale, meaning I can indulge without breaking the bank.

One week, I found Sausage-Stuffed Mini Peppers for $2, so I snatched them up for plans on dinner that evening. Amidst my excitement at this value, I completely forgot that we were on a health-food kick and sausage was strictly outlawed. So I froze them with the intent of eating them after we were done dieting, but the funny thing is, it's never stopped and now I actually enjoy eating healthy food (drat). So I pitched those fatty nuggets and decided to remake them, in a healthy version.

I just happened to have picked up a giant bag of mini sweet peppers for the grill, and had ground chicken breast on hand, so this was a no-brainer recipe. I cooked my chicken with salt, pepper, ground red pepper flakes, minced garlic, diced celery, red onion, until it was nearly cooked through, then I tossed a handful of shredded Colby-Jack cheese to the mixture. In the meantime, I cut the tops off my peppers, removed the seeds, and arranged in a mini muffin tray (I didn't think we would eat all 24, but we sure did!). When I cook regular-sized stuffed peppers, I'll put a bit of water in the bottom of the dish, but since these didn't have flat bottoms, the mini muffin tray worked like a gem; I could still add water to each cup, and not worry about the mixture falling out.

I covered the tray with aluminum foil, and baked at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Then I uncovered the tray and set the oven to broil, to add some nice color and texture to each pepper. These were lava-hot coming out of the oven, and we made a meal with just these and a glass of white wine. Matt pretty much dug out the chicken and left most of the peppers, but I felt good about "sneaking" veggies into our dinner, so I'd call this one a success!

How do you "health-up" your favorite recipes?