Fajita Quinoa Filling for Fajitas or Bell Peppers

This recipe is a continuation of my efforts to decrease the bulk in my massive stock of food.  Last week while I was grocery shopping I accidentally hijacked some stranger's grocery cart- embarrassing!  This wasn't realized until after we got home and couldn't find some of the stuff that we had picked up in the very beginning of the trip.  There weren't many surprise items, since we had picked up most of the stuff that the victim had.  However, we did go home with 2 additional bell peppers.

For some reason I decided to base this whole meal off of my stolen peppers.  I knew that I wanted to use quinoa to fill them up since quinoa can host practically any flavor (and to further my mission to use up stuff).

I was pretty proud of these stuffed peppers, especially since I have never had them before.  I could have just put a bunch of the filling in a bowl for Alex and saved his pepper for something else since he just thought that eating the pepper was too much of a hassle.  The measurements given below are just for the filling if you are going to pile it into tortillas.  If you want to go low-carb and fill up the peppers like I did, you will want to increase the seasonings since the heat of the oven will weaken the flavor.  Rating 7.5/10

Ingredients
1 cup cooked chicken- cubed
3/4 cup quinoa- cooked as directed
1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes- liquids reserved
1-3 bell peppers- 1 diced for filling and up to 3 sliced in half lengthwise and seeded/ribbed
2 tbsp jalapeno- diced
1 small onion- diced
2 tbsp cilantro
2 tsp lime juice
1 cup Mexican cheese- separated
2-3 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp crushed garlic

Cook the quinoa according to the package.
Combine everything in a pot over medium heat!  It's that simple.  Taste and adjust ingredients to suit your needs.

For the bell pepper route: increase the cumin and you might want to consider adding around 3/4 tsp sea salt.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Halve the peppers and fill with the quinoa mixture
Pour the tomato sauce from the diced tomatoes into a baking dish.
Place the filled peppers into the dish and cover with tin foil.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Remove from oven and top with additional cheese.