If you’re heading to a holiday party and don’t want to get stuck eating all unhealthy, high calorie dishes, why not bring your own healthy side? Hosts usually welcome an extra dish to add to a buffet, and this will ensure you won’t be filling up only on junk food.

Here is one of our favorite fall holiday party recipes – stuffed peppers. Try it the next time you need to whip up a healthy side dish.

Ingredients:

• 6 large bell peppers
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small sweet onion, chopped
• 1 10-oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 2 cups cooked couscous
• 1 cup chickpeas
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tomato, chopped
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1 cup raisins
• ½ cup crumbled low-fat feta cheese

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Place raisins in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes, or until plump. Drain.
3. Slice off the tops of the peppers to make lids. Scoop out the insides of the peppers and discard.
4. In a large saucepan of boiling water, simmer the peppers and lids, covered, for 5 minutes. Drain.
5. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, onion and spinach. Saute for 2 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Cook for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
6. Stir in couscous, chickpeas, oregano, salt, pepper and raisins. Mix in the feta cheese.
7. Fill each pepper with the couscous mixture. Place upright in a shallow baking dish. Cover with the pepper tops.
8. Bake until the filling is heated through, about 20 minutes.

If you are making these for a larger party, use mini bell pepper instead of large bell peppers. This will give you a much larger yield and the dish will be more of a finger food type of appetizer.

What’s you’re favorite healthy holiday party recipe?