No pasta tonight.

My mother-in-law sent us home with a few green peppers and I decided to try my hand at stuffed peppers. I got a great recipe for stuffed peppers from Elly (who's blog is fabulous!) and worked from there. I made a few changes to work with what I had, but the recipe is pretty much hers.

I would definitely make this again. I had quite a bit of filling left over since my peppers were pretty small (they were out of mother-in-law's garden), but it turned out ok. I ended up eating it while the peppers baked. All of it. With a spoon. Out of the pan. It was really good.

Baking them was a little bit of a challenge since I didn't have peppers that could stand on their own. I had the ingenious idea to pop the stems out of the lid and use them as a sort of stand by putting the peppers into the hole and having them stand up. Good idea in theory, but I failed to take into account the fact the peppers soften as they bake, so all of them fell. No worries. I just scooped any spilled filling back in after backing and ate a little more off the pan (don't judge- the filling was great!).

I tried to take a few pictures but my camera had other ideas, so there is only one that isn't all black with purple lines running horizontally across. It will have to be good enough.





Stuffed Peppers

4-6 bell peppers
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 lb ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c cooked rice
1/2 c chicken broth
1/2 c to 3/4 c chunky salsa
2-3 t cumin
2-3 t chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 c shredded Mexican cheese

Cut the tops of the peppers and remove the core and seeds. Spray the peppers and a jelly-roll pan with cooking spray. In a large skillet, brown the beef, onions and garlic until the beef is no longer pink and the onions are translucent. Stir in rice, chicken broth, salsa and seasonings. Cook until warmed through and most of the liquid absorbed. Remove from heat and stir in cheese. Spoon into peppers and bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes. While waiting for peppers to cook, eat any remaining filling with a spoon. Out of the pan. It tastes better that way.

For a side, I steamed some broccoli and added some goat cheese, pine nuts and balsamic vinegar.