Italian Stuffed Pepper Cauliflower Rice Skillet
Italian stuffed pepper cauliflower rice skillet is a delicious twist on traditional stuffed peppers. It’s low carb, high protein and ready in 30 minutes, making it perfect for any night of the week.
It’s October and that means that it’s time for the fall edition of Freaky Friday. If you’re not familiar with Freaky Friday, it’s a recipe swap that some of my blogger friends and I participate in once each season. My friend, Michaela, from An Affair From The Heart secretly assigns each one of us another person’s blog.
We each pick a recipe from our assigned blog to cook and then share on our blog, keeping it a secret until today. What’s so fun is having the chance to try out another blogger’s recipe and then share it with our own readers, introducing you to some great blogs.
This round of Freaky Friday, I was assigned my friend Justine’s blog, Fully Belly Sisters, which I was very excited about. I met Justine early on after I started blogging and I love her blog and her recipes. She focuses on recipes that are delicious, but healthy at the same time.
As I was browsing through her blog, some of the recipes that jumped out at me were this Antipasto Salad with Peperoncini Olive Tapenade, her Bacon Scallion Deviled Eggs and for a delicious sweet treat, these Nutella Filled Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars.
When it came time to choose the recipe I was going to make for today, I had to go with her Italian Stuffed Pepper Cauliflower Rice Skillet. Steve and I have been eating a high protein, low carb diet for the past few months, so this recipe was a perfect choice.
It’s full of both protein and lots of veggies, along with lots of flavor. On top of that, it’s really quick and easy to prepare. From start to finish, the recipe only took about 30 minutes to prepare. That makes it a perfect meal any night of the week.
Italian stuffed pepper cauliflower rice skillet is a perfect meal for busy weeknights. By chopping up the peppers instead of stuffing them and taking some help from jarred marinara sauce, you’ll have dinner on the table in 30 minutes. Other than a short time under the broiler to melt the cheese, everything cooks up quickly on the stove top.
Now let’s talk about the flavor. This may be a quick meal, but it’s not lacking in flavor. It’s got a great meaty flavor and fennel adds a bit of a sausage taste.
I also added a pinch of red pepper flake and a little Italian seasoning for even more flavor. Then of course, there’s all that melted cheese on top to really make it delicious. Trust me, you’re going to love this one!
Italian Stuffed Pepper Cauliflower Rice Skillet
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1 large carrot, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 1 to 2 red and/or yellow bell peppers, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed
- 1 (12 oz) pkg cauliflower rice, about 3-4 cups
- 1 pound ground beef, preferably grass-fed
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
- 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced
- chopped parsley, for garnish
Instructions
ENJOY!
Yay, Lisa, so glad you got assigned to me! I’m grateful to see this dish—a fave of mine—through your STUNNING photos. So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Thanks Justine, you’re such a sweetheart! We loved this recipe and I loved how easy it was!
This sounds so yum!! I love the sound of all those ingredients together, definitely the tastes of stuffed peppers without the stuffing of the peppers part! Ha!
I really really love this!! Love the flavors, the use of cauliflower plus anything in sauce and cheese is OK with me!!! Cant wait to make this one!!! Gorgeous photos too!
Stuffed peppers are literally one of my most favorite meals. I am loving the cauliflower in this one — gorgeous photograph, as always!!
Wbat a flavorful dish! Looks like pure comfort food to me!
This looks so good! I haven’t used cauliflower rice like this yet but love the idea!
This looks delicious! I could make this for my family & I think they’d be really happy. So many flavors. Yum!
We love stuffed peppers! I can’t wait to try this variation. Bonus for me, it’s Gluten Free!
Your photos are always amazing!! I want to dive into this skillet right now!
I can’t wait to try this one! My family is going to love all the Italian flavors, and I appreciate a hearty low carb meal.
I can’t wait to try making this! It’s such a fun twist on stuffed peppers!
It seems pretty apparent that you knocked this dish clear out of the ball park! I’m loving everything about this, particularly the clever use of cauliflower rice; fantastic job with this one!
I am a sucker for stuffed peppers and really the only time I eat the green ones outside of fajitas. I love making stuffed peppers but they are a pain to make. Having a skillet version is so much easier!
This is one of my favorite recipes of Michaela’s! I love how you put a low carb twist on it!!! SO TRYING IT!!!
I can see why you chose this skillet meal – so much deliciousness and a perfect meal! This will be a great meal for the wintertime so much warmth and coziness!!
This looks so delicious! And I love that its healthy too!