Saturday, January 17, 2009

Stuffed Peppers


When Jon and I first got married, cooking wasn't a love of mine. The day he moved in, I made tacos to celebrate (poor guy...)! I started to cook more often and would try new things; one thing he loved was my stuffed peppers. Well once I heard that I started to make them every other week...he got a little tired of them!! I haven't made these for a few years, and was happy to hear that he wanted to eat them again.

Stuffed peppers aren't only for dinner - I made them once with eggs for breakfast. Click
here for that post.

Note - when we were first married I was a vegetarian, so while I'd make real beef stuffed peppers for him, I would use MorningStar Farms Recipe Crumbles (fake ground meat) to make my own. Here is a post featuring vegetarian stuffed tomatoes, and another with quinoa stuffed tomatoes (peppers work as well).

This recipe is my own recipe.

Ingredients
  • Peppers (I used 5 but could have made 6)
  • 1.25 lbs ground beef
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 8 oz crushed tomatoes
  • Salt, pepper, dried parsley, oregano
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Cooked rice

Directions

  • Cut off tops of peppers and clean out seeds.
  • Heat a large pan. Add ground meat, chopping it up as you go, until browned.
  • Add onions, garlic, spices, and almost all of the crushed tomatoes. Let it cook for several minutes, tasting it as you go and adjusting the spices as needed.
  • Add one small handful shredded Parmesan cheese (you should know by now that I don't measure...I make it up as I go along!).
  • Add 2 large spoonfuls cooked rice and mix everything together. Taste again and adjust the spices if needed.
  • Coat the bottom of a baking dish with the rest of the tomatoes. If you used chunky tomatoes, coat the dish with tomato sauce.
  • Fill each pepper with the mixture, pressing it down to maximize the space.
  • Cover with foil and bake on 375 for about 20 minutes.
  • Remove foil, top each pepper with Parmesan cheese, and bake for another 5 minutes.

This is a full meal all wrapped up in a pepper - you have your veggie, meat, and starch all in one neat little package. Delicious!


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6 comments:

  1. What a great idea to fill peppers with eggs! I would have never thought of that. Yum.

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  2. Oh! You reminded me of the quinoa I have just waiting to be used. I should really make stuffed pepper with it!

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  3. I love stuffed peppers. I have not had them in forever! I like the egg touch. It reminds me of chile rellenos.

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  4. Wow ! Another great leftover for Dad and Mom

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  5. I had to post a comment because this post made me laugh. It really sounded like me! I wasn't into cooking either and when I found something my (now) husband liked, I made it every other day LOL...

    I came here for the peppers recipe so I'm printing it and hopefully I'll get to make it a few times for my husband *grin*

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had to post a comment because this post made me laugh. It really sounded like me! I wasn't into cooking either and when I found something my (now) husband liked, I made it every other day LOL...

    I came here for the peppers recipe so I'm printing it and hopefully I'll get to make it a few times for my husband *grin*

    ReplyDelete