Mushroom and Cheese Stuffed Sweet Peppers

By now, you have probably guessed that I like to play around with flavors, colors and textures. This next recipe achieves all three in a clean manner. After you're done, you should be able to savor each bit comprising an outer layer of sweet and juicy green pepper followed by gooey cheese mixed in with crunchy mushrooms spiced with delicious herbs. What an explosion of flavors in your mouth!

For the recipe you will need,
4-6 medium sized sweet peppers, hollowed out from top
4 tbsp cottage cheese (could substitute with 3 tbsp minced meat and 1 tbsp cheese in which case you will need to increase oven grilling time to 1 hour instead of 45 minutes)
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 small onion finely chopped
1/2 cup portobella mushrooms chopped
1/2  tsp dried basil (or if using fresh chopped basil, use 1 tbsp)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp paprika
2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
Parmesan for garnish (optional)
non-stick spray

Method: Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. First, to prepare the stuffing, in a shallow pan, saute the onions, garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil. Add thyme, basil, paprika, and mushrooms and finally cottage cheese and salt and stir for a minute before removing from heat. Stuff the peppers, baste the outside of the pepper with olive oil. Cover oven tray with aluminium foil. Spray the tray with a non-stick spray and place the peppers on their side and grill for 30 minutes. Turn to other side and grill for another 15 minutes. Poke with a fork to make sure the pepper is cooked.

Serve hot!