J's Spicy Stuffed Mushrooms

Yum! This meal was far easier than I thought it would be and man was it tasty. I must admit, I was a little nervous about making a "Mexican-ish" stuffed mushroom, but it turned out far better than I could have even imagined, and did I mention it was easy? The meal prep took about 15 minutes (I already had the beans and rice cooked, we always have cooked beans and rice on hand), and then another 20 minutes to bake, during which, I did other things. I love easy meals as I work full-time and though I love cooking, I don't want to spend hours in the kitchen after a long "hard" day at work.

Oh, and we love Peruvian Yellow peppers, they are very spicy, but not so much that Brett won't eat them, and they have an amazing flavor, similar to habaneros, but the spice level isn't quite there. Yay for me and yay for Brett! We saved the seeds out of these bad boys in hopes of growing some next year. Too bad the pasilla seeds didn't work out though, the pepper wasn't mature (which they have to be in order to get seeds that will actually grow) and they just rotted and turned brown. I really want to grow pasillas (and cascabels) so I will likely be buying seeds for those online next year (blech!), but I will keep the seeds from the mature fruits, so it should (hopefully) only be a one-time thing.

Anyways, sorry for the aside. Onto the food!

Just a reminder of the produce legend:
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden

















J's Spicy Stuffed Mushrooms
large mushrooms for stuffing, cleaned and stems removed (we used "Portobellinis" which are portobellos in between "regular" and "baby" sized)

Filling:
1/2 cup black beans, cooked
1/2 cup long grain brown rice
3-4 Roma tomatoes, diced ***
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and minced ***
1 Peruvian yellow pepper, seeded and minced *
1 pasilla pepper, seeded and minced *
1/2 small yellow or red onion, minced *
2 cloves of garlic, minced *
chili powder
cumin
paprika
Mexican oregano
black pepper
salt

vegan jack (optional)
or
"Mexican blend" cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat a few tablespoons of water in a small skillet. Add the peppers, onion, and garlic. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until veggies are really soft. Drain any excess liquid.

Combine the rest of the filling ingredients and season to taste.

Stuff mushrooms with the filling and bake for about 20 minutes.

Turn on the broiler.

Remove the mushrooms from the oven and top with a little vegan jack or dairy cheese.

Place under broiler, watching very carefully, until melted.

This made 6 stuffed mushrooms and enough filling for me to take in a burrito for lunch the next day at work.

These were so good and so easy that we will definitely be having these again. We might play around with different types of mushrooms to stuff too.

Brett will be posting the final challenge check-in for the Quit Now Challenge, so any Quitters out there beware!

'Til next time!