Stuffed bell peppers

For the first three years of my marriage, I had to listen to my husband drop hints every few months about how much he loved stuffed peppers. I'm so glad it took me three to make those peppers, because if I wasn't such a procrastinator, I'd have never found the recipe that I turned into my own.

While I was pregnant with Lindsey, it was hot. It was very hot. So I kept myself busy inside. One of my favorite things to do during the summer is canning, but that involved a lot of standing. So I settled on buying green peppers by the boatload and sitting on my couch and cutting them, hollowing them out, whatever I needed to do to them, and I froze them. I highly recommend doing this. If you can find a local farm who sells their peppers cheap, go for it. Sometimes you can find a good deal at a farmers market, but I am not the person who finds those deals. Although I can't remember if I got a half or whole bushel of green peppers, I know that I only paid around $6 for it, and either way you go, that's a great deal. Plus, they froze well and were super handy.

Anyway, it was the winter of 2011 that I decided to shut my hubby up and make him some peppers. I had several in my freezer. It was the perfect time. I used a recipe from a church cookbook as a guide to making them (shocker: I didn't have all the ingredients). I had never made them before, and I couldn't remember eating one ever, so I really had no idea what I was doing. I have used my own recipe since then. These are seriously delicious.

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Stuffed bell peppers

Ingredients:

4 green bell peppers
1 pound ground beef
1 large onion, diced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 can tomato sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 package (5.6 oz) chicken flavored rice (I have used many brands, including store brands)
Cheese- cheddar or Mexican blend

Look at all that cheese!

Cut peppers in half, removed stem and seeds. Boil in a pot of salted water for approximately two minutes. Remove from water, pat dry and place in a 9x13 pan.

Prepare the rice. I use the microwave directions.

Meanwhile, brown meat and onion, drain. I wipe out the pan thoroughly.. grease. Ew. Place back in pan, add salt and pepper, 1/2 can tomato sauce, ketchup and rice. Mix well and scoop mixture into pepper halves. Bake on 350° for 30 minutes.

Drizzle the remaining tomato sauce over the peppers and sprinkle with cheese. I use A LOT of cheese, but you can do what you want. :)  Bake for an additional 5 minutes.

**I have occasionally added our favorite habanero sauce to the meat mixture just to spice it up a bit. Any pepper sauce would work, I should think.

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I don't have a clue what to serve with this. I eat it by itself. My husband thinks it goes well with mashed potatoes, but he thinks everything goes well with mashed potatoes.