Fajita Style Stuffed Mini Peppers

These were not supposed to be fajita style stuffed. They were also not supposed to be mini, but they were so cute that I had to get them when I saw them, so there will be another stuffed pepper dish coming very soon after this. From another continent though, from Mexico to Croatia. Ha!

Anyway, surfing away looking for idea for stuffing these little cuties, I realized I wanted to eat Fajitas for awhile, and that these vibrant colors are totally screaming Mexican food at me. So it came to me that simple. Eliminate tortilla, and make the pepper the star. You really need to try to make these!

Fajita Style Stuffed Mini Peppers

16 mini peppers (reserve one for rice), cleaned and halfed
3/4 cup of rice
1 onion
half of chicken breast
cilantro
salt and pepper
fajita spice mix (recipe follows)
1 tsp of tomato paste
cheese

Fajita Spice Mix

1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika

Add water to the rice and bring to boil, reduce the heat and add the tomato paste, teaspoon of fajita spice mix and some salt and pepper. Finely chop cilantro, about 2 tbsp, dice one pepper and add it all to the rice.
Cut the chicken and onion in small pieces, if you have a grill pan use that, but a regular pan will do just fine. First cook the chicken and then when almost done, add the onion, season with fajita spice mix.
Prepare grated cheese and start assembling your pepper on a cookie pan lined with parchment paper. Fill the peppers with rice first but don’t over-stuff them, add chicken and onion mix and top with grated cheese. This is the step by step photo:

Bake the peppers on 425 for 10 minutes or until the cheese is nicely melted and browned.
You can serve these with corn and avocado salsa and sour cream.

Corn and Avocado Salsa

1 cup of corn
1 avocado
1 large tomato
1/2 onion
cilantro
salt and pepper
1 tbsp of olive oil
juice of one lime

Cut avocado, tomato and onion in small pieces and mix in a bowl with corn, salt and pepper, chopped cilantro, olive oil and juice of one lime. That was easy! :o)

Tomorrow is Saturday and I’m going to the farmers market. It wont be much longer before the season is done so I’m hoping to stock up on some berries and hopefully nice pepper to stuff them again, Croatian style!
Tomorrow is also my dad’s birthday. Sretan rodjendan tata! :-*