Friday, December 31, 2010

Healthier Stuffed Peppers

I found this recipe on All Recipes (www.allrecipes.com). I've never made these before, and we were all surprised at how great these tasted. They are healthy and yet satisfying, with brown rice, ground turkey (or ground beef), and spaghetti sauce filling. I did make a few revisions, which are in italics on the recipe. Otherwise, this is copied and pasted directly from the website. These are also really great as leftovers the next day. One more thing, don't forget to start this early, because it takes about 45 minutes to cook the rice and defrost/cook the hamburger, and THEN it still bakes for one hour.

 

Mel, this picture is for you, since you need to see what it looks like!

 

 Ingredients

  • 1 pound lean ground beef (I used ground turkey, which is healthier and not so gross to cook)
  • 1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
  • 1 cup water
  • 6 bell peppers, assorted colors
  • 2 (8 ounce) cans natural tomato sauce (I used one 26-ounce can of regular spaghetti sauce)
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 medium onion, chopped (I only used about 1/4 of an onion)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (I didn't have that, so I just put used parsley, oregano, and garlic powder, season to taste)
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, optional (I did use this, and it added flavor, so I would recommend it, but you won't die without it. I also put a small amount of mozzarella cheese on top)
  • I also added mushrooms (chopped)
  • I also added about 1/2 a can of olives (chopped)


Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Place the rice and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook 45 minutes. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef, garlic and onion until meat is evenly browned and onion is softened.
  3. Remove and discard the tops, seeds, and membranes of the bell peppers. Arrange peppers in a baking dish with the hollowed sides facing upward. (Slice the bottoms of the peppers if necessary so that they will stand upright.)
  4. In a bowl, mix the browned beef, cooked rice, 1 can tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Spoon an equal amount of the mixture into each hollowed pepper. Mix the remaining tomato sauce and Italian seasoning in a bowl, and pour over the stuffed peppers.
  5. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, basting with sauce every 15 minutes, until the peppers are tender. Sprinkle the peppers with grated parmesan cheese after baking, if desired.

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