… the first thing that comes to your mind after cooking an amazing dish is to preserve the memories recipe in a blog post for future reference.
I was craving stuffed bell peppers tonight but honestly after a stressful day at the office and shopping at Target (9 more days until our cruise!!) I really didn’t want to wait an hour and a half until I could pull a meal out of the oven. Seriously, like that’s a week night option!! Sure I could have gotten some frozen instant version of stuffed peppers but I’m trying really hard to avoid Barely-There-Cuisine type uber-engineered meals with a 55 ingredients chemicals list.
So if you are looking for an easy, somewhat healthy and most importantly fast stuffed peppers recipe, you might like what I came up with. I cooked the following in under 30 minutes and even had my living areas vacuumed and the kitchen cleaned up before I sat down with my plate and a glass of Shiraz.
- Always a good staple on hand, I freeze ground beef/pork in quarters of the rectangular packs. Defrost 2 of them or use fresh if you specifically shop for this meal. (I think that would equate to ca 1/2 lbs of ground meat)
- I had a set of three bell peppers ($1.99 at ALDI, $3.99 at Target (Just saying)) and I washed and beheaded them and got rid of the seeds.
- Place the peppers open side up in a microwavable dish and add a cm of water to the dish. Microwave on high for 3 minutes.
- Combine raw ground beef, ca 1/2 cup or instant rice (the one that takes 5 minutes to boil), 14oz of tomato sauce (1/2 a big can), garlic powder (I used ca 1 tablespoon but you could easily crush 2-3 cloves of fresh garlic and use those), red crushed pepper flakes (I used way too much! Hello mouth on fire! Try 1 tablespoon or substitute with paprika and black pepper), a bit of salt and a dash of sugar. Now, I’m thinking if you don’t have enough ground meat or rice on hand you could also easily use bread crumbs as filler.
- Fill the now a little softer bell peppers with the mix. Cover and microwave for 10 minutes. Ding! Food is done! Don’t burn your hands or lips!
I’m going to unstuff the left-over peppers and add some more sauce so they’ll heat up better for lunch. Definitely making them again!