Easy Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

Before I met my husband my standard order at a restaurant sounded a little like this: "I'll take that, except no tomatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, olives or anything spicy. And please no blue cheese or feta on the salad. And I'll take any condiments and sauces on the side. Thanks! Oh, and is the cheesecake made with cream cheese? If so, no thank you."

Fortunately for me (and all servers that get the pleasure of waiting on me now) I have expanded my horizons a bit over the last couple years. I am way less picky and now love a lot of foods I didn't use to like. One dish my husband turned me on to is stuffed peppers. Man was I missing out!

My mother-in-law has a family favorite recipe for a cheeseburger stuffed pepper which is phenomenal. Lately, we've been trying different variations on the recipe. Tonight I decided to try to make a quick & easy stuffed pepper with all the flavors we love- Southwestern Style!

Take 6 whole green peppers, wash, cut off the tops and throw out all the guts. Put in a casserole dish.

Cook 2 cups of brown rice (I used Uncle Ben's minute rice, nothing fancy.) *That's two cups uncooked, so four cups cooked.

In a large bowl mix the rice with one pound of ground beef, half a cup of shredded Mexican cheese, half a can of diced tomatoes w/ green chilies (not drained) and one cup of fresh salsa. The original recipe calls for chopped onions. I didn't want to take the time to chop onions, nor did I want to deal with the watery eye business. My grocery store has the best fresh salsa in the produce section and it was on sale this week so I thought I'd save some time and energy and give that a try. If I had thought of it ahead of time, I would have added a cup of black beans (drained) and a cup of corn... but sadly, I didn't.

Salt & Pepper.

 

I used a large ice cream scoop to mix everything up (so I didn't have to take off my rings) and the scoop made it really easy to stuff the peppers. I divided up the remaining diced tomatoes and put those on top in lieu of the traditional tomato or spaghetti sauce. Then I added some sliced pepperjack cheese on top to make it all melty and pretty and spicy.

Bake 1 hour at 350 degree. Yumm! Easy peasy! Open a few cans, cook some rice in the microwave- one bowl and one pot cooking!

Linking @ Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms