Beef and Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers

Taken from Simply Recipes online.

Ingredients

* 4 green or red bell peppers
* Salt
* 5 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped
* 1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
* 1 lb of lean ground beef
* 1 1/2 cup of cooked rice or 3/4 cup of raw instant rice
* 1 cup chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned
* 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp of dried oregano
* Fresh ground pepper
* 1/2 cup ketchup
* 1/2 tsp of Worcestershire Sauce
* Dash of Tabasco sauce

Method

1 Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, cut top off peppers 1 inch from the stem end, and remove seeds. Add several generous pinches of salt to boiling water, then add peppers and boil, using a spoon to keep peppers completely submerged, until brilliant green (or red if red peppers) and their flesh slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Drain, set aside to cool.

2 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat 4 tbsp of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, and cook, stirring often, until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat, add meat, rice, tomatoes, and oregano, and season generously with salt and pepper. Mix well.

3 Drizzle remaining 1 tbsp. Oil inside peppers, arrange cut side up in a baking dish, then stuff peppers with filling. Combine ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, and 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl, then spoon over filling. Add 1/4 cup of water to the baking dish. Place in oven and bake for 40-50 minutes (or longer, depending on how big the peppers are that you are stuffing), until the internal temperature of the stuffed pepper is 150-160°F.

Serves 4.


****** I took a short cut on this one big time, just because I'm lucky to get 20 minutes to cook dinner on a weeknight these days! I just browned the beef, added Italian seasonings and then added a jar of organic spaghetti sauce. I did boil the bell peppers, and then filled them, added parmesan cheese on top, and then baked for about 20 mins at 350. They turned out dee-lish. I made brown rice to add as stuffing but then put it on the side for the kids, who like their meat sauce on top of their rice, with plenty of parm :)