Brace yourself for an AWESOME recipe. I made green bell peppers stuffed with ground beef and rice for dinner tonight.  Growing up my mama always made these for dinner.  She gave me her recipe and I swear I was following it, but mine never turned out as good as hers.  The stuffing always dried out.  Perhaps I wasn’t putting enough love in to it. But tonight, I had no such problem! I combined my moms recipe with a couple other ones that I found online…mission successful.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 3 large green peppers
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1/2 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 can diced tomatoes (8 ounces)
• 1 can tomato sauce (16 ounces)
• 1/2 cup rice
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp italian seasoning
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper (*optional, added for spice)
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I used a blend of cheddar and mozzarella)

1. Cut tops of green peppers off. Chop off enough of the tops of the green peppers to have 1/4 cup diced green pepper. Remove seeds and membranes from inside of peppers.
2. Place whole green peppers in pot of boiling water, uncovered for 5 minutes.  Remove from pot and invert on paper towel.
   
3. Heat olive oil in skillet.  Brown onions, ground beef and 1/4 cup of chopped green pepper.  Drain off excess fat.
4. Add 1/2 can of undrained, diced tomatoes, 1/2 can of tomato sauce, rice, water, salt, italian seasoning, crushed red pepper, and black pepper to ground beef mixture in skillet.
5. Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and cover until rice is tender.  I used brown rice, so it took about 45 minutes for my rice to cook. (white rice should take ~20 minutes)
   
6. Stir in cheese.  Sprinkle salt on inside of green peppers. Stuff peppers with meat and mixture.
7. In a casserole dish deep enough to hold green peppers up right, add remaining 1/2 of tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of water. This will act as a “bath” for the stuffed peppers to finish cooking in.
8. Place stuffed peppers in casserole dish. Sprinkle peppers with a little extra cheese. Cover and bake on 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
9. Dig in and enjoy!