RECIPE: Stuffed Bell Peppers

This is how my grandmother and my mother made this dish.  It may seem plain, but it is really delicious.  I like to break open a pepper and plop a dollop of butter right in the middle.  Yum!

1 ½ lb ground beef

1 med onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 cups white rice cooked only 10 min. 

6 bell peppers

2 cans tomato sauce

1 can petit diced tomatoes (optional)

Cook rice only 10 minutes and set aside.  Brown ground beef, onion and garlic in a skillet.  Drain.  Combine rice and beef in large bowl. You want about 50% of each. Cut tops off peppers, rinse and scrape seeds and white from insides.  Stuff each pepper full with beef mixture, pressing it into pepper.  Pour tomato sauce and diced tomatoes (if desired) into large crock pot.  Set stuffed peppers in sauce in crock pot, crowding them toward the middle if there’s room.  Set tops back on peppers.  Cook on low for several hours until peppers are tender.  

Variation: I often make them this way 

Cook rice according to directions.  Brown beef, onions and garlic in large skillet.  Add tomato sauce and tomatoes.  Slice peppers into strips, add to beef mixture and simmer till desired tenderness.  Serve over rice.  (So much easier! Tastes the same!)