Once A Month Cooking: Stuffed Peppers

One of our neighbors blessed us with an entire box of peppers last week, in red, orange, yellow, and green. I love the colors in peppers but they are usually so expensive at the store that I don’t get them. This was a special blessing to me!

Stuffed peppers are a great Once A Month Cooking dish because they do freeze well, and don’t seem to lose flavor in the freezer. You just need to remember that if you are making them ahead of time you will want to under cook them so they don’t totally disintegrate when you heat them up! I don’t blanch them at all before I stuff them. Just place the filling in the raw peppers, stand them up in a pan of water or tomato juice and bake until they are almost done. If you want to flash freeze them for individual meals then you can stand them up in muffin pans and place in the freezer. Once frozen, take them out, wrap individually with plastic wrap, pulling it tightly around them. Place the individual stuffed peppers in a ziploc bag and toss in the freezer. Just microwave them to heat and eat.

These peppers are a nod to the Tex Mex food that I am surrounded with. There is a spicy-exotic mole sauce rather than the traditional tomato sauce, and using the fire roasted tomatoes makes a huge flavor difference.

Stuffed Peppers

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 cup uncooked organic brown rice
• 3 cups v-8 juice or water
• 12 green bell peppers
• 4 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 can Muir Glen Organic fire roasted tomatoes diced (try not to substitute)
• 2 4 oz cans of chiles, diced
• 1 tbs chopped garlic
• 1 onion chopped
• 1/2 c chopped fresh cilantro
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tbs cocoa
• 1 tsp cumin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the rice and V-8 in a saucepan, and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and cook 20 minutes. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef, garlic, onion, and chiles until done.

Remove and discard the tops, seeds, and membranes of the peppers. Arrange peppers in a baking dish with the hollowed sides facing upward. You may need to slice a little from the bottoms so they will stand upright.
In a bowl, mix the cooked beef mixture, cooked rice, 1 can tomato sauce, tomatoes,cilantro, salt, and pepper. Spoon the mixture into each pepper. Mix the remaining tomato sauce, cocoa, cumin, and chili powder in a bowl. Pour over the stuffed peppers.
Bake 30 minutes, basting with sauce every 15 minutes or so.

Cool to room temperature and flash freeze.

Makes 12

To serve:

Thaw peppers overnight in the fridge. Microwave until heated through, or bake for 15 minutes, or until heated through. Serve with french bread, salad, and cookie dough brownies.

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