Stuffed Peppers

For a nice, end-of-summer meal I wanted to do a stuffed pepper for dinner.  For some reason I've had these little suckers on my mind for awhile.  Not quite sure I can tell you why ... perhaps it was how good the peppers looked when I was at the Farmer's Market ... ore maybe I was having some odd craving for bell pepper and didn't know a better way to work it into a meal. 

Regardless ... I'm now sharing this odd need for stuffed peppers with you.  Kudos. 

We are going to start off like we always do: what do we need to begin this beauty? 

• 5-8 peppers (depends of course on how many people you are feeding of course)
• 1 white onion
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 1 package sliced Provolone cheese
• Brown rice (I chose a store short cut with the Swanson Steamfresh package)
• Sliced mushrooms (I would have chosen fresh, however the Farmer's Market didn't have the greatest selection on them this week)
• 1 can of Rotel (use your taste to determine Mild or Hot flavor)
• 1-2 pounds of ground beef (could also substitute sausage or ground pork here as well)

First off we want to get our stuffing going.  So I started browning my ground beef with my minced garlic and salt & pepper to taste.

While that is cooking up nicely, let's start getting our peppers prepared.  When looking for peppers to buy, look for the taller ones that don't have a lot of tip to them.  Take your time and pick the best.  This is a prime example:

First thing first: "off with it's head!"                                 Now for the guts of the matter:

                      




The best and easiest way I have found to get out the guts is with a paring knife.  Cut around the core on the inside and then simply pull out the seeds. 

Now you can clean out the inside of any bits you may have missed and you have your shell for your mixture. 

The only other thing you need to pay attention to is making sure it will stand on it's own.  If your pepper leans a little, you can cut off a bit at a time at the bottom to help it stand up better. 

Now we are done preparing our peppers and need to move on to finishing our mixture. 

Now is also a good time to go ahead and preheat your oven to about 450 degrees. 

To your browned beef, add your mushrooms, cooked rice, (my store short cut was doing the steamed rice in the microwave) minced onion and one can of Rotel - with the juice.

My mixture needed a touch more creaminess to it, so I added two dollops of sour cream just to bind it all together. 

Now, place your hollowed out peppers in a baking dish.  Spray lightly with cooking spray.  It's almost assembly time!

Go ahead and start spooning in your mixture.  Fill all the way to the top of each pepper.

Now that your peppers are ready, top with a sliced piece of Provolone on top.  YUM.

Place in the oven for about 5-9 minutes - long enough to start melting the cheese over the tops.  Remember: everything you have here is cooked fully.  You are only melting cheese and bringing all your flavors together at this point.  If you would like to omit a few calories, simply cut out the cheese on the top. 

Once your cheese is nicely melted, go ahead and put your oven on Broil for about 3-5 minutes.  Keep your oven door ajar and a close eye on your cheese - once you are on broil you can quickly burn anything - so no time to go check the tv schedule for the night; stay by your peppers. 

Once you have your nice, golden, bubbly tops ... you have reached perfection!

Serve up - this is a meal all in one, so I don't serve a side dish with this one.  I already have my tomatoes, rice, mushrooms and meat all in here; I'm not missing anything. 

Finally: time to dig in and enjoy!!

Delicious meal that not only fills you up but you can eat with very little guilt.  Try with different combinations - you can get so very creative on this one!!  Have fun with it!! 

~Cheers!!