(Relatively) Easy Stuffed Peppers

My grandmother had a bag of green peppers given to her and needed something to be done with them...she kept saying stuffed peppers...not quite my style...in fact I made stuffed peppers once and I hated every second of it....so I was less than thrilled that she kept saying stuffed peppers when I said I was going to make dinner...off to scour some pins...

Found quite a few recipes and most of them looked delicious, but I didn't want to go to the grocery store, so I kept looking until I found a recipe I could at least work with...

Came across a recipe, Southwestern Stuffed Peppers, from Simply Love Food and was set.

Ingredients (my changes are bold and underlined):

EVOO and PAM spray

1/2 lb lean ground beef

medium chopped onions

use cilantro!!! (I didn't have any)

 chili seasoning mix and 1 T. chili powder

2 cups of cooked rice

6 small green bell peppers, halved and seeds removed

1 can of black beans, drained & rinsed (omited)

½ cup of frozen corn

1 (15 -16 ounce) jar of salsa (I don't believe I used this much salsa)

Shredded (sharp) Cheddar Cheese

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat the baking pan with PAM spray. Half (length wise) and seed peppers....drizzle with EVOO and salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 20-25 minutes (I went with 22 minutes)

drizzled with EVOO and salt and pepper

Meanwhile, season and cook the meat. Add in the onion and cilantro. While the meat was cooking, I also added in some of the salsa. If I would have had a tomato, I would have also put that in the pan. (diced, of course)

Also, cook the rice if it isn't quick rice. (and the black beans...I hate beans, so I am not up on my bean cooking times...)

Once the meat was done, I took the meat out of the pan and left the juices in the pan. Then, I added the frozen corn to the pan to soak up the seasonings and juices. I left the corn in long enough to cook and get a little bit brown.

corn cooking in the seasonings from the meat

Then, I added the corn and rice to the meat. If you had the black beans, you would add those here too. I mixed all of that in the bowl and let it sit. I also added in about 3/4 c. of cheese and mixed that in, too.

If you haven't gotten the peppers out of the oven, don't forget to get them out!

I let my peppers cool for a bit before I stuffed them. After they cooled, I spooned the mixture into each pepper. Then, I drizzled the rest of the salsa over the peppers.

Then, topped with cheese.

Peppers went back into the oven for approximately 15 more minutes. (long enough to melt the cheese throughout)

all done!

Now, I know that was a lot of directions, but really, none of the directions were hard. I know this recipe didn't include a lot of measurements...I eyeballed a lot! So, go with your gut. This recipe is versatile in the fact that you can add different things to the meat. I did end up with a lot of dirty dishes...so next time I would want to find a way to cut down on the amount of clean up work. Since I had white rice, I had to cook that in a separate container...usually I deal with 10 minute brown rice...but I can't complain...I didn't have to go to the grocery store...

You could also play around with the type of toppings you use...we didn't have any toppings, so they were essentially "naked" stuffed peppers.

But, the family was happy and my grandmother said they were good...not that that is saying too much since she is usually dining on Lean Cuisines...not that there is anything wrong with that, its just....she didn't have to make it nor did she have to clean up...so, of course, she was going to say it was good :)

I hope you take the time to try this recipe. It's a keeper in my book!