FOODIE FRIDAY...STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS

Did you ever eat #stuffedgreenpeppers as a kid? We did and I remember not being fond of the pepper SO my mom would make us "porcupine balls" (the ground beef made into a ball with rice and cooked WITH the peppers in the tomato sauce). 

You want to brown your ground beef first (I add a few shakes of adobo and pepper)

Start separating and chopping the beef up so it's fine and not clumps of meat.....

Here is the browned ground beef....in the center is a bed of rice (you can use any rice really....this was some jasmine rice I had left over from another meal {when I cook rice and KNOW I'll be using it again that week I like to make extra so all I have to do is heat it up} because the rice was cold (and hardens when refridgerated) I nestled it in the meat and covered it to soften....

Once softened I mixed together...I let this cool and then put it in a freezer bag for use later (I spent one day cooking lotsa food and KNEW we wouldn't eat it all that week so I made ahead and froze). And boy was I happy I did - it was so easy to just prepare the peppers since the first step was done....

I'm a big fan of substitutions and using what I have on hand vs running out and buying every single ingredient a recipe calls for SO I had a bottle of V8 Bloody Mary mix and that became my tomato base...I poured a small amount in the bottom of the pan to coat it and prevent the peppers from sticking.

I washed the peppers, cut the tops off (SAVE THESE FOR LATER) and discarded the seeds. Filled the peppers with the meat and rice mixture, poured some V8 into the peppers....

....and baked in my toaster oven (so I didn't have to turn on the entire oven)

After about 20 minutes I took the peppers out and added the tops....

When the tops were blackened (watch them EACH oven is different) I knew they were done.

I nestled the pepper on a small bed of rice and cut it down into strips so I could savor ALL the ingredients at once!

My daughter said to me "I like that you're home - we get good dinners now". I LOVED hearing that and the prep was SO easy because I already had one step done!