~* Recipe of the Week *~

Stuffed Green Peppers

 

 

MMmmmm…… stuffed green peppers!  This is one of those recipes I enjoyed often when I was growing up, and had decided to make for dinner yesterday.   My mom would often make them with mashed potatoes on the side. I liked using the extra tomato sauce/juice at the bottom of the pan to drizzle on top of my potatoes for some extra yummy flavor.  So, without further delay, here is my mom’s stuffed pepper recipe!

Preparation: 15-20 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour (oven set at 350 degrees F)

Ingredients: (Makes about 6 pepper halves)

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 cup – 1 cup uncooked white rice (depending on how much or how little you enjoy rice; I used a 1/4 cup when I made 2 pepper halves)
• 4 green peppers
• 1 jar tomato sauce or 1 jar spaghetti sauce (I use spaghetti sauce because it is thicker, but either is fine)

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a small saucepan, boil water and cook rice.
3. While rice is cooking, cut peppers in half and remove stems, centers and seeds.
4. When rice is done cooking, drain, then run cold water over rice and drain again to cool it down and to make it easier to mix in with the ground beef.
5. In a large bowl mix together (I use my hands) the rice and the uncooked ground beef. 
6. Place pepper halves in a glass baking dish. If using a metal baking pan, line pan with aluminum foil.
7. Roll rice and ground beef mixture into balls and stuff them inside pepper halves.  Don’t be afraid to over stuff the pepper halves, the more stuffing in each, the better!
8. Pour spaghetti sauce/tomato sauce over peppers.  Cover pan with aluminum foil.
9. Cook in oven for 1 hour.  Check internal temperature of stuffing with a meat thermometer to make sure ground beef is cooked thoroughly.
10. When done, serve with mashed potatoes or any other vegetable/side you would like.  And don’t forget to drizzle the leftover sauce onto your peppers for some extra flavoring!!

* These peppers can also be cooked on the grill.  Just wrap each stuffed pepper topped with sauce in aluminum foil!

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