Stuffed Bell Peppers

Hello Friends!

Happy long weekend Friday!

I always have bell peppers in my fridge. They’re great for snacking and can be tossed into many different dishes! Sometimes, I buy way more than we can finish in a week. Luckily, they do tend to last much longer in the fridge than most peppers.

I usually try to get them from Costco because they sell them in a pack of six and 99% of the time they are much larger than ones you find at a local grocery store. More bang for the buck is how I look at it.

Here is a recipe that I threw together using many things that I have on hand/in the fridge regularly (it’s a great way to use up ingredients!):

Ingredients:

• 4 Medium-Large Bell Peppers
• 1 lb. Ground Beef (or ground chicken or turkey)
• 1 Medium Onion, diced
• 3 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
• 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 Tbsp Granulated Garlic
• 24 oz. Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce (you can use any pasta sauce or even just a fan or crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce)
• Shredded Cheese
• Salt & Pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven at 350° F.

Slice the tops off the bell peppers and remove the core. Keep the tops and cut around the stem. Dice up the remainder of the top.

In a pan, sauté your onion, garlic, and diced bell peppers (tops) until fragrant. Add your ground meat and cook until it’s browned. Now you’ll add the tomato paste. Sauté everything for about a minute and then you’ll add your spinach. Once the spinach is mixed in thoroughly you’ll add the marinara sauce. Add the Italian Seasoning and granulated garlic. Salt and pepper to taste then remove it from the heat.

Place your peppers on a greased baking sheet. I used a 9×9 baking dish. Spoon the mixture into your peppers and top it with some shredded cheese. I chose Mexican style cheese since that’s what I had in the fridge. Pop it into the oven and cook until it’s bubbly. Keep an eye on it since every oven is different. You don’t want to overcook the bell pepper. Mine took roughly 20 minutes to get bubbly.

If you have leftover sauce, you can keep it in the fridge and use it for pasta sauce. If it’s too thick you can add more tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes to thin it out! You can also freeze the sauce as well.

Hope you will enjoy this recipe!

Happy Eating!

XOXO,

Karmen