February 2016 Meal of the Month

Vegetables are sometimes not the best, but we can make them better by stuffing them with meat, rice and cheese! These stuffed peppers are easy to make and also give you a great pre-made portion. This is once again a macronutrient friendly recipe that uses lean ground beef. When I made this recipe, I doubled the stuffing to use for tacos as well. This yielded an incredible amount of food, so it might be a good idea to stick to the original recipe. Check it out.

Mexican Stuffed Pepper Nutritional Information (per stuffed pepper)

Calories: 324
Fat: 9g (25%)
Carbohydrate: 41g (50%)
Protein: 23g (25%)
*This is an estimate of course

Stuff you need

Stovetop
Oven
Dutch Oven, Large Kettle or Microwave
Giant pan for browning meat
13x9 baking dish (or other giant dish)
Spatula or big spoon
Cutting Board
Knife

Ingredients

6-8 medium green, yellow, or red peppers
1 pound lean ground beef (93/7)
1 packet taco seasoning
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped celery
3 cups cooked rice
1-2 cups salsa
1 tablespoon chopped green chillies
2 teaspoons chili powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese
*I used 1 can corn and 1 can black beans and used less rice

Directions

Chop off the tops of the peppers and throw them away. Remove the seeds from the peppers. In a Dutch Oven or large kettle, cook peppers in boiling water for 3-5 minutes. This softens the peppers. Another option is to microwave the peppers for around a minute. Set the peppers to the side.
Cook some rice (we need around 3 cooked cups for this recipe).
In your giant pan, brown the beef with the taco seasoning and cook the onion and celery. When the beef is browned, throw in the rice, 1 cup of salsa, the chilies, chili powder and salt. (I also added corn and black beans)

Place the peppers in your baking dish that is coated with some non-stick cooking spray. Scoop the rice concoction into the peppers.
Put this into the oven and bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until heated through. This is also a time to make sure the peppers are soft enough for your liking.