Stuffed Peppers

(#10) Master 25 new recipes.

1. Stuffed peppers

Today I made stuffed peppers. 

First of all, let me say it was way more involved than I imagined. I would definitely recommend making the rice ahead of time. And not running to the store at 6:00 pm and thinking you will have everything ready by dinner time. It took about an hour for the peppers to cook through, and that was after about 30 minutes of prep (again, less if you cook the rice the night before...maybe even the beef the night before would be okay). 

It was pretty good though. My pepper didn't turn out as soft as I wanted it, but Ronnie liked it a lot. He even ate the extra filling on its own. And it was not terribly unhealthy. I used brown rice and you could even use ground turkey instead of beef.

Anyway, here's how I made it.

Ingredients:

4 green peppers

1/2 pound ground beef

1 cups rice (I used brown)

1 onion, diced

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 cup tomato sauce (make it as saucey as you want it)

Worcestershire sauce

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Italian seasoning

Cheddar cheese

Cook the rice as required (I have a rice cooker but you can make it in a pan or instant if you want). When the rice is nearly done start cooking the beef in one HOT pan and cook the onions in the another, larger pan. Making sure the pans are hot for onions and for meat is the secret to deliciousness. Season the meat with a ton of onion powder, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Then add a dash of the Worcestershire.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350.

When the beef is about done (it will cook more later) drain the fat and transfer the meat to the onion pan to finish cooking. Then add the whole can of tomatoes, juice and all. Cook until it starts to look like a sauce instead of a soup, about 5-10 minutes.

If you have room in the pan, add the rice. If not just mix as you add to the peppers.

Cut the top off the peppers and pull out the seeds and white membranes. Fill with the filling, leaving a little room at the top for as much sauce as you want. Cook for 45 minutes to one hour on a rimmed baking sheet (the peppers tend to get juicy), watching and adding more sauce as needed.

When it was nearly done (check the softness of the peppers) I added cheddar cheese to the top. I think that was a non-traditional move on my part but I liked the cheese addition.

And you're done! Recipe number one down, 24 to go.