Stuffed Green Peppers


Four green (or other color) peppers
½ to ¾ pound of ground sirloin
1 cup cooked rice
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
1 clove minced garlic
1 small onion grated with the juice (grate it with a box grater right over the mixing bowl, the onion juice will help keep the meat moist)
1 egg, whisked
½ T salt
1 t black pepper
1 t red pepper flakes
1 jalapeno, finely minced (you can omit this if you don’t like things too spicy)
1 small can tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 375


Whisk all ingredients except the beef and rice in a mixing bowl. Add beef and combine just until blended (too much meat handling and your meat will be tough—just ask Bert)

Grease a baking dish with olive oil.

De-stem and cut the tops (about 1/3) off of each green pepper. Reserve the tops! If you have a wobbly pepper you can take a little slice off the bottom to make it stand up.

Put some rice into each green pepper, then add the meat mixture, packing each pepper tightly. Put a few tablespoons of the tomato sauce over the top, and then put the pepper top back on top of each pepper.

If you have any meat mixture, rice and/or tomato sauce leftover, you can add it to the bottom of the baking dish to cook.

Lightly cover with foil and bake for an hour or until thoroughly cooked. Take the foil off for the last 10 minutes or so.

NOTES:

1. Some people combine the meat and the rice into the peppers but I like to layer them.
---It’s a great meal with just a salad or dinner rolls. Leftovers are good for lunch.

2. You can divide this recipe by half if you want to.

3. Some people like to cut the peppers in half lengthwise instead of cutting them “tall-ways.” They might cook a little faster this way.