Couscous Stuffed Peppers

This recipe serves 5 people and leaves you with 4 stuffed peppers to eat later. The total cost is about $35, assuming you already have the spices, and you can probably save money on the peppers if you find somewhere cheap to buy them.

You can serve 9 people, but if you do then double the amount of spinach and bacon.

You will need:

• 9 bell peppers, different colours look good ($18)
• 4 servings ground chicken ($3)
  
• 3 cups of uncooked couscous ($3)
  
• 4 cups low sodium chicken stock ($2)
  
• 4 shallots, chopped ($2)
  
• 1 jalapeno, chopped ($0.30)
  
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 2 tbsp dried chopped parsley
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp sage

and

• 1 baguette ($2)
  
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp cholesterol lowering spread

and

• 2 bags cheap spinach ($3)
  
• 6 slices of streaky bacon ($1)
  

It isn't very complicated to cook, but there are a lot of instructions as I've given each step in lots of detail!

Preparation:

• Chop the shallots.
• Chop the jalapeno, and throw away the seeds (apparently they turn a bit sour when cooked).
• Cut tops of the peppers, throw away the insides, chop the tops up.
• Grease a roasting pan with cooking spray and store the peppers in this.

Make the stuffed peppers:

• Bring 3 cups of chicken stock to a boil in a really big pot (you'll be mixing everything in here later). Remove it from the heat and add the couscous. Leave to stand for 5 minutes, then stir (a.k.a. fluff) the couscous so it will be easier to mix later. Leave it there in the pot.
• Put a big frying pan on a medium-low heat (level 4 of 10), lightly coat with cooking spray or olive oil. Add the shallots and cook until they go clear, stirring occasionally.
• Add the ground meat and all the spices, then stir and cook until brown. Add half a cup of chicken stock and simmer for a couple of minutes. You'll still have a bit of extra liquid now, but pour everything into the pot with the couscous in and mix it up.
• Put the chopped pepper tops into the frying pan and cook until soft.
• Add the chopped jalapeno for about a minute then pour all this in the pot and mix.
• Stuff the peppers with the contents of the pot. I had to really pack it in to use up all the mix.
• Preheat the oven to 350F then put the peppers in there for 30 minutes (which gives you enough time to prepare the sides).

Make the side dishes:

• Mix the chopped garlic and cholesterol lowering spread (the garlic provides most of the taste so this doesn't sacrifice much on taste, but is much healthier) together in a bowl.
• Cut the baguette into slices and spread the garlic spread on. Put on a baking tray so it is ready to broil once the peppers are done.
• Cook your bacon. I use microwave bacon because it is cheap, easy and quick. I like to pull off the really fatty bits beforehand, then microwave until crispy. To chop it up simply drop it into a paper towel and scrunch it up in your hands. If you've missed any big wobbly bits of fat you'll be able to pull them out more easily at this point.
• Now you need to cook the spinach. Just drop it into the same frying pan as earlier (no need to make more stuff dirty for washing up) and stir until it is reduced to a dark green squishy mess. I had shedloads of spinach so had to do this in about 5 batches. I had also bought cheap spinach so I had to pull off the big stems by hand. I just did it whilst they were in the frying pan.
• Once all the spinach is cooked mix it with the bacon pieces. It will all fit in the frying pan to do this as it will reduce to about 10% its size after cooking.
• The peppers should have been in 30 minutes by now (the tops will be a little bit crispy), so move the peppers to the bottom of the oven to keep them warm. Change the oven to broil and put the garlic bread in. Keep your eye on these like a hawk as they burn easily.

Serve each person one stuffed pepper, some spinach with bacon, and a couple of slices of garlic bread. The stuffed peppers are ridiculously filling, so people will really only need one each, especially when dessert is Rice Krispie Treats with Oreos!

This was a good experiment but I thought of a couple of ways I could have improved it.

• It did not turn out at all spicy. I like spicy food so wish I'd spiced them up. If you have to cater to a range of tastes perhaps spice the peppers according to colour, e.g. loads of chilli powder and cayenne pepper in the red ones, just a bit in the yellow, and none in the green ones.
• I was surprised how much cholesterol was in the ground chicken. Apparently turkey is healthier than the chicken, so I'd try that next time.