Stuffed Turkey Sausage Peppers

Courtesy of Plated Perfection

It's been quite some time since I made stuffed peppers, so I decided to give it a go and this time attempt to make it even more healthy! I usually use rice in the filling and ground beef, so this time there is a different spin! These are great to freeze as well, if you don't eat them all :) I also had some of the filling leftover, which was great by itself!

Ingredients:
1 package ground turkey (mine was 20 oz)
2 sweet Italian turkey sausages (I bought these fresh), casings removed
1/2 zucchini, diced
6 bell peppers (I used yellow, orange, red, and green), 1 cup diced reserved from the tops
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 cup stewed tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/2 cup marinara sauce (good quality)
salt and pepper (approximately 1 tsp each)
dash of garlic powder with parsley
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella (I use 2%)
2 tb olive oil

Directions:
Cut the tops off of the peppers, keeping the tops to dice for the filling. Slightly cut the bottom of the peppers to help them stand up straight. It's OK if there are holes in the bottoms - not much drained out of mine. Make sure the seeds are cleaned out of the peppers. Stand the peppers up in a baking dish, sprayed with olive oil. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat a small amount of the olive oil in a skillet and brown the ground turkey until cooked through, approximately 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Heat the sausage until cooked through, approximately 5 minutes, using a spatula or spoon to break up the meat. Drain and add to the ground turkey and set aside. Mix together the zucchini, diced peppers, garlic, and onion. Add more olive oil if needed and saute the vegetables for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. Toss in the sausage and turkey mixture. Turn off the heat. Stir in the stewed tomatoes, marinara sauce, salt and pepper, garlic powder, and 1/2 of the mozzarella portion. Fill the peppers with the mixture with a spoon and spread the remainder of the mozzarella on top of the peppers. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10-15 minutes.