Stuffed Green Bell Peppers

I feel that there’s always one dish that every family has that is guaranteed to please any night of the week. What is your family’s dish? We actually have two dishes and (surprise!) they are both tomato-based recipes that include meat and onions.

The first dish we always turn to is my famous spaghetti. I mix in spices and veggies in order to make this the ultimate comfort food in our home. The other dish, one that we turn to when we’re looking to change things up a bit, consists of stuffed green peppers. I don’t make it often but when I do it’s usually when the chill of winter is on the horizon.

Over the weekend, D.C. received its first snowfall. The temperature dropped to the lowest levels we have seen in quite a while and the snow fell beautifully. To keep us nice and toasty, I decided to make one of our comfort foods last night. With the Christmas lights lit and the winter wonderland outside, this dish was the perfect complement to our evening.

Stuffed Green Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cans tomato/pasta sauce (Hunt’s Garlic and Herb Tomato Sauce — 2 29-ounce cans)
• Seasoning (cayenne pepper, garlic, salt, Italian seasoning, etc.)
• 6 large (flat-bottomed) green bell peppers
• 2 cups white rice, prepared
• Shredded Mozzarella cheese
• 2 cans Campbell’s tomato soup
• Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. In a smaller skillet, saute the chopped onions using extra virgin olive oil. Once the meat is browned, drain the fat and add the onions. Add 1 1/4 cans of tomato sauce and season (to taste). Simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Cook rice to directions and add half to the meat mixture. Continue to simmer for an additional 2-3 minutes.
4. Rinse the bell peppers, remove the lids and clean out the seeds. Sprinkle cheese inside each pepper.
5. Prepare the cooking dish by spraying with cooking spray and adding two (prepared) cans of tomato soup to the bottom of the baking dish (save a small amount to drizzle over the peppers).
6. Fill each pepper to the brim with the meat and rice mixture and place meat-side-up on the cooking dish. Drizzle a small amount of tomato soup over each pepper. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45-60 minutes (or until the peppers are tender). During the remaining 5 minutes of cooking time, sprinkle cheese over each pepper, remove aluminum foil and bake until cheese is melted.
7. Pile remaining rice on dishes, place a pepper in the center of the rice pile and drizzle with tomato soup from baking dish.

Bon Appetit…and be sure to bundle up and stay warm!