Stuffed Peppers

I'm not really a fan of cooked vegetables; I prefer them raw. Give me a stalk of broccoli and some vinegar and I'm set but try to feed me cooked broccoli covered in cheese and I'll have to be rude and decline. So when I put stuffed peppers on the menu this week, I was a little hesitant. But since I don't mind peppers in a stir fry or on my philly cheesesteak, I decided to try it out.

I like stuffed peppers for the same reason I like stuffed shells: there are so many different ways you can make them. These could be made with a vegetarian mixture, you could stuff them with spaghetti and meat sauce, beans and rice, the list could go on and on!

This recipes is from Allrecipes with a few revisions.

1 pound ground beef

1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice

1 cup water

6 green peppers (we only used 4 but we had plenty of meat/rice mixture left over)

1 tablespooon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion pepper

salt and pepper to taste

1 16 oz jar of spaghetti sauce

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350º. Place the rice and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook 20 minutes until done. Meanwhile, season the beef with garlic and onion powder and then cook the beef evenly in a skillet over medium heat until browned. Drain and set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds. Put the peppers into boiling water for 1-2 minutes and then quickly put into ice water. In a glass baking dish, spread enough spaghetti sauce to cover the bottom of the dish. Arrange peppers in baking dish with the hollowed sides facing upwards.

In a bowl, mix the browned beef, cooked rice, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Spoon an equal amount of the mixture into each hollowed pepper. Use the remaining spaghetti sauce to cover the stuffed peppers.

Bake for 45 minutes in oven and enjoy!