Piping Hot Stuffed Peppers 07/11/2010

Delicious green peppers over flowing with a mixture of meat, rice, sweet onion, seasoning, red sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese. My husband has been crazing (more like crying) a really delicious stuffed pepper for the longest time. His mother made them weekly when he was growing up and he truly missed having them. I have never made them despite his constantly requesting that I make them for him. For years I didn’t make them because I want to make a meal for us BOTH, one that we both can eat and enjoy. Now, since you all know I have severe allergies to a LOT of things (peppers being one of them), I refused to make them. John asked last week if I will ever change my mind and make him stuffed peppers and the weird thing is I got in my inbox a recipe for someone’s favorite stuffed peppers. I emailed him the link and he begged me to make it. So, as a surprise to him (and myself) I picked up the ingredients and decided to buck it up and make it. He was surprised last night to come home to a strong delightful smell of cooked peppers. He had such a grin on his face! Here’s pictures and the much healthier recipe for the stuffed peppers that my husband thinks are the “BEST DARN STUFFED PEPPERS!”. Hope you enjoy them as much as he did. (PS: I did not eat the pepper, just the meat mixture alone, which is quite tasty.)

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Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Hot Water

• 1 Cup Brown Rice (white rice can be substituted)

• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

• 4 Large Green Bell Peppers (red or  yellow peppers can be substituted)

• 1 1/2 Pounds Lean Ground Turkey or Ground Beef

• 1 Medium Sweet Onion, Chopped

• 1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic

• 1/4 Teaspoon Salt

• Pepper to Taste

• 1 -15 Ounce Jar/Can of Tomato Sauce (I used Sugar-Free Tomato Sauce)

• 2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (sharp cheddar cheese can be substituted)

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 350° degrees.
2. Bring a hot water to boil in medium sauce pan. Add olive oil and rice to pan and stir. Reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer for appropriate time on rice package. Time depends on what kind of rice you use.
3. When rice is done, remove from heat and set aside.
4. In a large skillet, ground beef/turkey over medium heat; drain.
5. Return to heat and add onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
6. Stir in tomato sauce, and simmer for 5 more minutes.
7. Mix in cooked rice and mix thoroughly. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
8. While meat mixture is cooking on stove, prepare peppers.
9. Cut tops off of each pepper. You can choose to cut them in half or down the middle. Remove seeds. Place peppers onto a baking sheet or 9×9 baking dish.
10. Optional Prep for Peppers: Place halved and seeded peppers into large sauce pan, cover with enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Remove peppers from water and set aside in baking dish.
11. Slowly spoon meat mixture into each pepper, packing mixture down as you go. Don’t over pack because peppers will crack.
12. Place pan with peppers into the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until mixture begins to turn golden brown.
13. Remove from oven and sprinkle cheese over the top of each pepper.
14. Return to oven and bake until cheese is melted and slightly brown for about 5-10 minutes.
15. Remove from oven and serve. (I topped the pepper with it’s lid-minus the stem of course)
16. You can serve it with sauce over the pepper or not.
17. ENJOY!

Serves 4

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