Stuffed Peppers

By Vicky Nardone

It's been almost a week since I actually made these stuffed peppers!  I actually intended to post this last Sunday before life got in the way.  In fact, I had just pulled these out of the oven when we made the decision that Piper needed to go to the emergency vet to have her eyes looked at.  I snapped a quick picture while my mom was in the bathroom before we rushed out the door.  We actually ended up throwing these in the refrigerator with some tin foil on them straight out of the oven - they made good leftovers at 11 o'clock at night when we finally got back from the vet.

Piper's doing well and adjusting to her loss of sight quite nicely.  She was whining and groaning quite a bit when we first brought her home but she seems to be out of pain now and is staring to learn to map the house.  She has no problem finding her food dish!  She's always had a healthy appetite and losing her eye sight has not affected that in the least!  I've been really impressed - her regular vet that she saw when she first got the infection has called us three times after hours to check on how she's doing and sent us a website she found on blind dog resources.  And today, we got a package in the mail from the eye care specialist with a plush toy for her.  She is going to be one spoiled, pampered dog!

Anyway, back to the stuffed peppers.  These are one of my favorite go to dinners during the winter time.  I actually made up the recipe for them right before I met Matt and they were one of the first dinners I made for him when we started dating.  He'd never had stuffed peppers before I made them for him.  They were actually also one of the first things I had made with soy crumbles (since Matt is vegetarian) and to tell you the truth, I actually like these with soy crumbles better than ground beef!

Hope you enjoy this recipe!

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef or a package of soy crumbles
• 3 or 4 bell peppers (depending on how full you want to stuff them)
• Half jar of spaghetti sauce (we use our favorite brand, Chefs)
• 1 package of 10 minute success rice
• 1 package (2 cups) cheese

Instructions

1.  Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Boil a medium-large pot of water.  While the water is boiling, cut your peppers in half length-wise.  Cut out the stem and scoop out the innards so that there are no seeds.
3. When the water is boiled, stick your bag of rice in for 10 minutes.  As mentioned in the ingredients we buy the 10 minute boil-in-a-bag success rice because it's nice and easy.  If you're a rice snob you can make it from scratch but I think it tastes delicious with the boil-in-a-bag stuff.
4. While the rice is cooking start cooking your meat in a medium sized pan.
5. When the rice is done cooking, remove the bag from the water but don't pour out the water from the pan.
6. Stick your pepper halves in the rice water for 3 minutes to soften them slightly.
7. While the peppers are in the water, add your cooked rice to your browned meat.  If you are using ground beef, I would recommend draining the meat before adding the rice.
8. Stir in the sauce and about 3/4 cup to one cup of cheese.  Let everything cook together for a minute or two.
9. Remove the peppers from the water and place them in an oven safe dish.  Scoop generous helpings of filling into the pepper halves and top with more cheese.
10. Place the dish in the oven for about 20 minutes.
11. Remove and enjoy!  They will be pretty hot so I'd recommend letting them cool for about 5-10 minutes.

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