Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers

To be honest, a good hoagie roll is one of the few things I'm not sure I'll ever fully give up.  I could totally live without ever having a crappy grocery store hamburger bun for the rest of my life.  But a fresh Philly roll... chewy on the outside, soft on the inside... well, they still get me!  But as my wedding approaches (23 days!!!) I've been trying to bump up my veggie intake and avoid those evil processed carbs.  Enter stuffed peppers!

I was kind of bored in the kitchen so I hopped on Pinterest and rounded up some old faves that I forgot about and also some newbies!  I had pinned this recipe a while ago and never got around to making it.  I wish I could say I came up with the idea, but I did some tweaking and made it my own.  The other day I was clicking around on my blog and I realized pretty much all of my recipes are from my pre-Paleo days, so I guess it's time to fix that!

Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers
Inspired by Peace Love and Low Carb

Ingredients:
- 4 bell peppers
- 1 vidalia onion
- 1 handful of white mushrooms
- 1 lb thinly sliced or shaved beef
- 4 slices of bacon
- tomato sauce
- minced garlic
- salt & pepper
- garlic powder
- cheese

Directions:
1.  Cook the bacon in a large pan over medium heat until done to your liking.  Remove and chop when you have a chance.

2.  Dice the onion and plop it into the pan so it can fry in the bacon grease.

3.  While the onions are cooking, cut the bell peppers in half, deseed and devein them.

4.  When the onions are almost cooked, add diced mushrooms and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

5.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
6.  Add the beef and cook until meat is browned, pulling meat apart as it cooks.

7.  Add garlic (I used ~1 tsp), salt, pepper, garlic powder, tomato sauce (I used a chunky mushroom tomato sauce I already had in my fridge from Wegmans), and cheese to taste.  And don't forget that bacon!

8.  Arrange the bell peppers in a large pan.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer your awesome meat/veggie mixture into the bell peppers.  Top with more cheese!

9.  Stick the pan in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese starts to brown on the top.

They are delicious!

Some notes:  I made this with 5 peppers and I wished I'd only used 4 so I could've filled each one to the brim.  We had company over, so I actually wish I had just doubled the entire recipe, so everyone could chow down (which they did) and we would've had an abundance of leftovers (which we did not).  I love cooking in large quantities to enjoy the leftovers for lunch or on a lazy evening.  Also, with the cheese they are not strict paleo, but you could easily omit it.

How often do you try new recipes?