Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Anyone else getting cold! Wow! Winter is really coming fast as summer and the farmer's market start to fade off into the distance. But don't fear, we can still make it through the winter with delicious and nutritious food! For those who have froze your food you might be even better off.  As Jack Frost starts to nip at our nose, ears, and even my toes, a warm dish is never a bad idea.  This recipe is one of the delicious recipes that will warm you right back up.  I personally didn't like bell peppers even a couple of years of ago, but now I will eat them plain.  They are sweet and have just the right taste to compliment our local quinoa and cabbage.  I have taken these to school a couple times and every time my friends laugh and say I have a "luxury lunch." Hopefully, you will get this feeling too after you eat these delicious stuffed peppers!

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tbl. olive oil
1 tbl. ground cumin
2 gloves garlic, minced (Sandhill Farms)
1 small head green cabbage, chopped (Jacob's Cove)
2 cups diced fresh tomatoes or approx. one 28 oz. can prepared tomatoes
(reserve any liquid)
3/4 cup quinoa
3 large carrots, grated (Jacob's Cove)
1 cup grated cumin spiced cheddar cheese (Gold Creek Cheese)
4 large bell peppers, halved lengthwise, seeded and ribs removed

1. Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook 5 minutes or until soft. Add cumin and garlic and saute for one minute. Stir in cabbage and tomatoes and add about 1/4 cup water. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until most of liquid has evaporated.
2. Stir in cabbage, carrots and quinoa, and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, then cover. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until quinoa is tender. Stir in 3/4 cup of the cheese. Season with ground pepper, if desired.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking dish by adding reserved tomato juice.
4. Fill each half pepper with quinoa mixture and place in baking dish. Cover and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle each pepper with remaining cheese. Bake 10 minutes more or until cheese has melted. Let stand for 5 minutes, then serve.
adapted from Weight Watchers recipes
Options:
--can't believe that peppers and tomatoes came in so late this year that we could still make this recipe. I did use some bell peppers that I had halved, blanched and then frozen to see if they would work in this recipe. You couldn't tell which ones were made from fresh peppers and which ones were made with the frozen ones.
--You could use any cheese on this recipe and weight-watchers called for low-fat cheese which my Mother NEVER buys! She thinks if you are going to eat cheese, eat the GOOD stuff! The cumin spiced cheddar cheese is really delicious and we just cut slices and eat it plain.
--Remember, we just use whatever we have in the house so for this recipe the cabbage replaced black beans in the original recipe and we still had fresh tomatoes so it replaced canned tomatoes.