Colorful Stuffed Peppers

For all those readers just interested in the food and not the food facts/story, skip down to the first picture and it will take you to the recipe! For those ready for the full crazy adventure....let's do this.

Classic me and my food cravings- I needed an orange pepper in my life pronto! We already had some leftover rice in the fridge so I decided to pull out a pound of ground beef from the freezer to make stuffed peppers for dinner! I grabbed some colorful peppers from the grocery store ensuring there were several orange peppers in the bunch since my brain thinks they are the best. (You can't convince me otherwise. It tastes different!!) I'm sure there are many different ways to make these, but I just threw some stuff together that I thought sounded tasty and it worked!!! Woohoo! Success!!!! Let's go over some of the benefits in this dish before going over the recipe:

(information below obtained from the book 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life by David Grotto R.D. unless otherwise stated)

-Peppers. Peppers contain vitamin C, beta-carotene, vitamin B, antioxidants, are anti-inflammatory, and may aid in fighting cancer.

-Rice (brown and white mix). Rice contains antioxidants, vitamin B, potassium, iron, fiber, vitamin E, and may help to reduce cholesterol. Be sure to mix brown rice in with your white rice to get all of these benefits though! Rice is also heart-healthy, may help to prevent cancer, and may even help in fighting Alzheimer's. It is also one of the least allergenic grains to consume.

-Garlic. Garlic helps with digestion, aids in lowering cholesterol, regulates blood sugar levels, lowers blood pressure, aids in preventing cancer, contains antioxidants, and can help fight illness or colds. (information obtained from organicfacts.net)

-Onion. Onions contain powerful antioxidants, fiber, vitamin C, folate, are natural chelators (get rid of heavy metals), may decrease the risk of osteoporosis, and may aid in fighting and preventing cancer. They are also heart health by decreasing the tendency of blood clots to form as well as lowering cholesterol levels.

-Tomato. Tomatoes contain vitamin C, potassium, beta-carotene, antioxidants, aids in preventing cancer, are anti-inflammatory, and are heart-healthy.

Time to get started!

Ingredients:
-6 Colorful Bell Peppers
-1 lb of Ground Beef
-1 Cup of Brown and White Rice Mixture
-1-2 Garlic Cloves
-1 Sweet Onion
-15 oz of Tomato Sauce (just the plain kind with tomatoes, not prego or a seasoned kind)
-Drizzle of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
-Handful or 2 of Shredded Cheese- optional, but it makes the middle ooey gooey good
-Mozzarella Cheese for the Topping
Large Sauce Pan
Small Sauce Pan or Rice Cooker
Roaster Pan
Aluminum Foil
Cook time: approximately 45 minutes

*This meal is great to make when you have some pre-cooked rice leftover from a previous dinner as it will reduce the time it takes to make this meal. However, if you are making the whole thing from scratch, start by cooking the rice first. By the time you need to add it into the mixture before putting the peppers in the oven it should be just about ready!

Preheat  your oven to 400 degrees.

While your oven heats up, begin by browning the ground beef in your large sauce pan over a medium heat.

Next medium dice the onion and mince your garlic cloves. Once your meat has mostly browned, add these into the pan.

Occasionally stir this mixture and cook it down until the onions begin to soften. 

Next prepare your peppers. Carefully slice off the top (save the part free from the seeds and stem), and then cut around the core of seeds to remove. You will see the white ribs of the pepper once this is removed. 

Carefully remove those white ribs with your knife. This part can be a little tricky since you want to keep the pepper intact. You can usually make a small cut and remove the rest by pulling it out with your fingers. Once your pepper is all nice and cleaned out, see if it can stand upright on its own. If it is too wobbly to do so, slice a small bit off of the bottom to create an even base. Be sure not to cut a hole in the bottom so that the filling can stay inside! Lastly, medium dice those saved tops so that none of the pepper goes to waste! 

To your meat mixture, add your tomato sauce, diced pepper tops, and rice (if it is still cooking that's okay! Mine needed to be heated up, but as long as your rice is mixed in before getting added into the pepper you are golden!)

Now I don't know about you, but I LOVE cheese. So I decided to throw a handful or two of some shredded cheese into the mixture as well. It was ooey and gooey inside and out at the end....I wasn't disappointed in this decision!

You all know how I feel about olive oil at this point haha! I think it helps to add extra flavor along with its health benefits, so why not! I took a small drizzle of olive oil and coated the outside of each pepper to help it roast in the oven. Once coated, place all 6 of the peppers into your roaster pan for the final steps.

Time to add the filling! Scoop out the mixture and fill up your peppers to the top!

All ready for the last step!

You may be thinking, what else would you need to add? UMMM MORE CHEESE OF COURSE! Totally up to you, but I felt double cheese was even better. You can definitely use shredded mozzarella, but I had some delicious mozzarella pearls leftover from some Caprese Chicken I made the other night. I didn't want them to go bad, so I just decided to use those up and placed them on top of my peppers. (They weirdly look like marshmallows in the picture....I promise it is cheese!)

OVEN TIME!! Hard part is done! I covered mine with some tin foil for about 10 minutes or until I could see the peppers softening. Once I saw that, I removed the foil and let them cook uncovered for about 35 minutes more- or until I could see the cheese browning and the peppers cooked through. 

**I do not like my peppers to be super cooked and soft/mushy. I like them to have a little crunch to them still. So if you like them to be more on the soft side, leave the tin foil on until the end and cook uncovered for just a few minutes. 

This is what they looked like coming out of the oven! The cheese is all melted with that nice browned top and they smelled really goooood. 

I bet you can't guess which color of stuffed pepper ended up on my plate....

How did you know?!?! haha! Time to dig in! Oh noooo deliciousness and cheese explosion-

Mmm!! I hope you enjoy this recipe too!! Until next time!

Let's get to Cookin'

~Abigail