Stuffed Peppers

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween! I can't believe it's almost time for Thanksgiving and then Christmas! Holidays seem to have a way of speeding time up, it seems. I found this recipe for Stuffed Peppers in a cookbook my mom had made me of her favorites. I made it last year on Halloween and then this year too and I'm thinking it might become our Halloween classic. I'm sure you'll see why.

Anyway, here's what you'll need. I forgot to include the tomato juice so I just popped it into the corner there.

First, slice your peppers. Then hollow out the seeds and membranes. I chose orange peppers but the recipe calls for green. Can you see where I'm going with this?

Voila! This isn't not an essential part of the recipe but if you're looking to make your meal a little festive, here you are. I got this idea from Pinterest.

This recipe makes six stuffed peppers but, as there's just us two, I make two at a time. You'll need to bring water to a boil (enough to cover how ever many peppers you're making) and then boil them for five minutes. In the mean time, brown your meat (and cook your rice if you haven't yet!).

When the meat is finished, drain it to get rid of the fat. Then return it to the skillet and add garlic powder, salt, tomato juice, and rice.

Mix it all up and bring it to a boil.

When your five minutes are up you're going to want to transfer the peppers to a baking dish. Once there, put a half a cup of the mixture in the peppers and cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Once that's done, put a slice of tomato on each and sprinkle with salt. Return to the oven uncovered for 15 minutes.

Generally, you can throw out the tops when you first cut them off but I like them for that Jack-O-Lantern effect!

Ingredients:

6 lg. green peppers
5 C. boiling water
1 1/2 lb. lean ground beef
2 Tbsp. chopped onion
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 C. cooked rice
1 C. tomato juice
6 thick tomato slices
Salt

1. Cut thin slice from stem end of each pepper, remove all seeds and membranes.
2. Cook peppers in boiling water 5 minutes; drain.
3. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Cook and stir meat and onion in large skillet until meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat.
5. Stir in 1 tsp salt, the garlic powder, rice and tomato juice; heat to boiling.
6. Lightly stuff each pepper with 1/2 C. meat mixture.
7. Stand peppers upright in an ungreased baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 45 minutes.
8.  Top each pepper with a tomato slice and sprinkle with salt. Bake uncovered 15 minutes.

The recipe includes that there are 225 calories so it's pretty healthy, which is something I am currently trying to be. As I typed the last word in that sentence I seriously heard the ice cream truck drive by. Must. Resist... :) Anyway, enjoy!

Killer Rice Casserole

This was one of Bryan's favorite meals that his mom made while he was growing up. It was printed in a magazine/newspaper (he can't remember which) as, simply, "Rice Casserole." However, it kept being described in the article as a "killer" recipe and they definitely found it to be so after giving it a try. So, it was dubbed "Killer Rice Casserole." He told me that his mom lost the recipe for several years and when she finally found it again and made it, it was still delicious as remembered. This recipe lives up to the "killer" hype!

See the end for the full recipe. Here's what you'll need:

(you can see I was getting pretty low on rice...)

The first thing you'll want to do is to cook your rice. I always find it helps to let your rice rest a while after it is done cooking, so whipping up the rest of this recipe gives it ample resting time.

Next... Yes, I know this picture is terrible quality... and you probably all know what it means to chop an onion, but I thought I'd throw it in anyway. So go ahead and chop your onion! (You'll probably want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees at this point as well.)

Melt a stick of butter in a skillet over medium to med-high heat.

Stir in the chopped onions and sauté until they become translucent.

Then, add the sour cream, cottage cheese, salt, pepper and cooked rice (everything but the cheese and green chilies) and fold the mixture together gently.

This is just a picture of the end result after it has been folded gently.

Take one third of that mixture and spread it across the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Now take half of your cheese and spread that in a layer over the rice mixture.

Now take half of you green chilies and sprinkle them on top of the cheese. After this, take half of the remaining rice mixture and spread another layer over the cheese/chilies. Spread the rest of the cheese on top and follow with the rest of the green chilies. Now, spread the last of the rice mixture over the top for your final layer.

Cover this with foil and bake for one hour at 350 degrees.

Hurray for cheesy goodness! I should mention that Bryan's Aunt Jeanette put together a Whitney/Gillmore family cookbook and marked all of Bryan's favorite recipes as a present for my bridal shower. It was a great idea and I've really cherished it. It's great to add a whole new set of favorite recipes to my own.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C. uncooked rice
1 stick butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (8 oz.) carton sour cream
1 (8 oz.) carton cottage cheese, small curd
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. pepper
2 C. grated cheddar cheese
1 can chopped green chilies, drained

1. Cook rice, set aside.
2. Melt butter in a skillet and sauté onion until translucent.
3. Add cooked rice, sour cream, cottage cheese, salt and pepper and gently fold everything together.
4. Spread one third of this mixture on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.
5. Top with half of the cheese and half of the green chilies.
6. Put another of the third of the rice as another layer (half of what is left of the rice).
7. Top with remaining cheese and then remaining chilies. Spread the rest of the rice on top as the final layer.
8. Cover with foil and cook for one hour at 350 degrees.