Thursday, February 23, 2012

Thursday Yummies - Unstuffed Peppers

If you're like me, you love stuffed peppers but hate all the work. The parboiling, the stuffing, the baking, the basting - it's a lot of work.

Recently I stumbled across a recipe for Unstuffed Peppers. It's all the yummy goodness of the original, without all the labor! I made it last week and it turned out really well. I think it would be superb as a make-ahead meal for freezing or serving later in the week. I figured it was time to share it with you all.

Unstuffed Peppers
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup diced onion
2 bell peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup cooked rice
1 jar of marinara sauce (26 ounces)
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Cook rice per package directions. You can substitute brown rice. Meanwhile, in a large skillet season the ground beef with garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste. Add the green peppers and onions and brown the ground beef, drain.

2. In a 2 qt. casserole, combine the sauce, rice, seasonings from the ingredient list and the cheese.  Add the meat and vegetable mixture and stir to combine.

3. If you like, you can sprinkle the top with 1/2 cup of seasoned bread crumbs and drizzle with olive oil before baking. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until heated through. If you're like me and you make this ahead of time, it will need about 30 minutes to heat up.

**Notes** I like to use brown rice for added nutrition. You could also substitute ground turkey if you want to go further. For the peppers, I like to use one red and one green bell pepper to add color to the casserole. I've had equally good results using shredded italian blend cheese. Finally, you could make your own sauce if you want, that's up to you.





2 comments:

  1. It looks good. And I think it will work with my gestational diabetes. Have to try it.

    ReplyDelete