easy stuffed bell peppers recipe

Easy Stuffed Bell Peppers Recipe

Written by on in Menu Planning, Recipes

I’d never made stuffed bell peppers before yesterday. They sounded good in theory, I’m honestly not sure why I’d never tried them, but they just never creeped into my repertoire.  I think my hubby asked me if I’d ever had them, or made them, and I decided to go in search of a recipe.

Of course, I couldn’t find one that a) matched my food rules; and b) sounded good – so I did some recipehacking and built my own.  By food rules, I have to probably add a new one.  I do NOT like to stuff anything with raw meat.  Even a pepper.  My late father-in-law stuffed his turkey with stuffing that contained raw sausage, and to me it was like a giant ball of salmonella. I just cant do it.

easy stuffed bell peppers recipe

I also didn’t want to have to cook my peppers into mush – I don’t like them that way.  My recipe stuffing is cooked.  That also makes it more flexible.  Replace rice with bread or crouton – use pork and beef instead of Italian sausage and beef.  Use ground chicken…whatever you have on hand can really be turned into stuffing.

Let me know what you think!

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Easy Stuffed Bell Peppers Recipe

Author Carrie Hill

Ingredients

  • 1/2 lb Italian sausage
  • 1/2 lb ground beef
  • 1/2 medium onion minced
  • 1/4 cup green pepper minced - use the pieces you slice off, below.
  • 1 C cooked rice
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 5 large bell peppers washed & laid on side, tip 1/4 sliced off (save) and seeds and membranes cleaned
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 1 jar marinara sauce
  • 2-3 C. shredded mozarella cheese

Instructions

  1. In a large skillet crumble & brown the Italian sausage and ground beef together. When they are about 1/2 way cooked, add in the onion, garlic and bell pepper.
  2. Continue to saute until everything is well cooked.
  3. Add rice to the meat mixture and heat through.
  4. In your baking dish, pour about 1/2 to 3/4 cup pasta sauce in the bottom and shake it around to coat.
  5. Add about 3 Tbsp. of pasta sauce to the meat and rice mixture to help it stick together.
  6. Once the stuffing is heated through, spoon the filling into the peppers and pack it nicely.
  7. Place the stuffed peppers over the pasta sauce in the baking dish
  8. Take the rest of the pasta sauce and spoon it over the peppers
  9. Bake for about 30 minutes until the peppers are nearly all the way soft when a sharp knife is inserted in the side
  10. Cover the peppers with the cheese
  11. Put it back in the oven for 10 minutes
  12. Yum