Stuffed Peppers Recipe

Stuffed pepper served with mashed sweet potatoes

Created this Stuffed Peppers recipe tonight.  These  can be made vegetarian, with all kinds of veggies and the pepper stuffing can be frozen used later.  This does require a good bit of prep time with all the chopping and pre-cooking but all of it can be done as far in advance as you want.  Like I said it "freezes beautifully." It has lots of color and a variety of veggies that make for a healthy meal!

Stuffed Peppers

serves: 6-8   Cook Time: 1hr 15min

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 ribs celery, finely chopped (about a 1/2 cup)
• 1 Tbs. ground cumin (mmmm)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
• 1 10-oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, drained
• 2 15-oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained, but KEEP the liquid
• 1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup Brown Rice (cooked) 
• 1 lb ground beef (browned) (can be any meet you want to use but it should be pre-cooked))
• 3 large carrots, grated (1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cups pepper Jack cheese
• 1 red bell pepper (I used red to add color.  Yellow would be great too. Presentation!)
• 6-8 large bell peppers (cored and de-ribbed)

Directions

1. Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and red pepper, and cook 5 minutes, or veggies begin to get soft. Add cumin and garlic, and saute for 1 minute. Stir in spinach and drained tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes, or until most of liquid has evaporated.
2. Stir in black beans, rice, carrots, and beef.  You can also add cheese to the stuffing, optional (this is not the 1/2 cup). Season with salt and pepper.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour liquid from tomatoes in bottom of baking dish.
4. Fill each bell pepper with heaping veggie mix, and place in baking dish. Cover tightly with foil, and bake 1 hour. Uncover, and sprinkle each pepper cheese. Bake 10-15 minutes more, or until tops of stuffed peppers are browned (Broiling is good too). Let stand 5 minutes. Enjoy!

Stuffed Peppers

 Any of the veggies can be taken out or substituted as desired.