In the Kitchen: Easy Stuffed Peppers

Happy Monday! I hope all of you had a marvelous weekend. We spent most of ours cooking, eating, or cleaning up good food! Friday, we made my dad his birthday dinner - Bacon Explosion, crash hot potatoes, salad, and Oreo cake! Saturday, we splurged and bought some steaks. While Phil was grilling, I whipped up these little babies. They were SO DELICIOUS. Not to mention, super easy. Here's the deal...

What You Need:

2-4 bell peppers (any color will do)

1/2 cup rice (ditto - I used white, but brown or wild would have been good too)

2-3 cloves of garlic (depending on how much you like)

1 medium tomato

1 ball fresh mozzarella cheese

Italian seasoning

salt & pepper

olive oil

First, prepare your rice. Start with half a cup of uncooked rice and follow the directions on the package to finish. While your rice is cooking, cut the tops off of your peppers, leaving as much pepper as possible. Remove the seeds and all from the inside too. Next, finely chop your garlic. Dice your tomato while you are at it. 

When the rice is done cooking, throw it in a bowl with the tomatoes and garlic. Add a good drizzle of olive oil and mix it all up. Then, make 2 good slices of cheese, large enough to cover the tops of the peppers. Cube the rest of the cheese and throw it in with the rice mixture. Add a good amount of Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir again to mix. 

I only made 2 peppers so I decided to put them into individual ramekins. If you are making several, you could use muffin tins or a smaller baking dish. Just make sure the peppers won't tip over. Drizzle a bit of olive oil in the bottom of your baking dish. Then, add your naked pepper, fill with rice, and top with mozzarella. Go ahead and drizzle a bit more olive oil on top of the cheese, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake these beauties at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve with anything! We had a spinach salad and a grilled steak with ours. The whole meal was incredible. Even Addie (super picky eater) loved the rice. WIN! WIN!

Enjoy!

-L