Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Poblano peppers have always intrigued me, though I haven't had occasion to use them until now. Our new local produce store had them for a good price (I can't remember if they were local or not) so I was excited to make this recipe from Clean Eating Magazine. They were spicier than I was expecting; the heat kind of grew as we continued eating them. Of course, we also put Frank's RedHot on top, at least until we realized how spicy they were. The H had two servings, there is one serving leftover for a lunch, and the little guy ate plain brown rice, 1/2 ear of corn, and black beans.



Mexican Poblano Stuffed Peppers
from Clean Eating Magazine, Sept/Oct 2010
serves 4

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked red beans, drained and rinsed (I used black)
1 cup cooked long-grain brown rice
1/2 cup frozen whole kernel corn, thawed (I used 1.5 ears fresh local corn, cut off the cob)
1 medium tomato, diced
1 small zucchini, diced (omitted--didn't have)
2 Tbsp onion, finely chopped (used 3 green onions--sounded too wimpy otherwise)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 tsp chili powder (I used 1/2 tsp--again with the wimpy!)
1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves, chopped (omitted)
1 tsp olive oil
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
Olive oil cooking spray
4 large poblano peppers, seeded and cut in half
1/2 cup shredded low-fat cheese
4 Tbsp low-fat sour cream (omitted)

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 75* and spray a large roasting pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix beans, rice, corn, tomato, zucchini, onion, garlic, chili powder, cilantro, oil, salt and pepper.**

2. Scoop 1/2 cup of filling mixture into each pepper half and place in roasting pan. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40-45 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese, and bake another 10 minutes.

3. Top each pepper half with sour cream and serve immediately.

**The filling mixture can be prepared one day ahead and stored in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.

Nutrition info per 2 halves:
Calories - 242
Fat - 7g
Carbs - 35g
Fiber - 8g
Sugars - 6g
Protein - 12g
Sodium - 197mg
Cholesterol - 17mg