Unstuffed Pepper Casserole

I love stuffed peppers.  LOVE THEM.  But I hate the many steps involved in making them.  So, the other night, I decided to use mini-peppers and make an "unstuffed" pepper dish.  No stuffing is involved, so it cut down on the number of steps.  Also, whenever I make the stuffed variety I always up with more stuffing than peppers.  I never know what to do with the stuffing - do I bake it alongside the peppers, do I just save it as leftovers?  I usually end up baking it (because I like it a little crunchy!) and serving it alongside the peppers.

Unstuffed Pepper Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef or turkey
2 C cooked brown rice
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper
24-30 mini multi-colored sweet peppers, washed, tops removed and seeded

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.  Brown ground meat in skillet.  When done, combine the meat with the rice, diced tomatoes, about 3/4 of the jar of marinara sauce and the spices.  Stir to combine.  Spray a 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray and place the mini-peppers on the bottom of the dish.  Cover the peppers with the meat and rice mixture.  Add more marinara sauce on top of the meat and rice mixture if desired.  Bake in oven for about 25-30 mins or until the dish reaches your desired level of browning :)

AFC Note: You can use more or less rice depending how you like your meat to rice ratio.  Same thing with the sauce.  I love sauce, so I used an entire jar!

Roasted Eggplant and Red Pepper Sauce

I love eggplant, but I always cook it the same way (saute it), so it gets to be a little boring.  In an effort to find a different way to cook it, I scoured magazines and found nothing.  Well, that's not true.  All the recipes I found were for frying it, which isn't what I wanted to do.  So maybe I was being picky?

Instead, I decided to chop it up and roast it with red peppers and onions.  I was just going to toss it over some pasta, when I decided to blend half of it with some juice from canned tomatoes.  Then I put the blended portion into a saucepan with the rest of the canned tomatoes, added some spices, and cooked it.  It came out great!

After you check out the recipe, be sure to check out my giveaway here, which ends tomorrow night! 

Roasted Eggplant and Red Pepper Sauce
Ingredients:
1 medium sized eggplant, peeled and chopped
2 red bell peppers, washed, seeded and chopped
1/2 sweet onion, sectioned into 8 or so sections
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes (mine had garlic, basil and oregano in it)
1 tsp sugar (if necessary to sweeten the sauce)
Optional:
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
fresh parsley for garnish

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 400 F and allow oven to preheat while you chop the veggies
• Spread chopped veggies out over a cookie sheet and season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle with about 1T-2T olive oil, making sure the veggies are coated.  Place cookie sheet in oven for about 15-25 mins or until the veggies are soft.
• Meanwhile, open tomatoes and empty tomatoes and juice into saucepan.
• After veggies are done cooking, allow to cool slightly.  In a blender, add 3-4T of the tomato juice.  Add about 1/2 of the cooked veggie mixture.  You may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender.  Place the remaining half of the cooked veggies in the sauce pot with the diced tomatoes. 
• Blend the veggies until they reach your desired consistency (mine were a little chunky).  And add the blended veggies to the tomato/veggie sauce. 
• Season the tomato/veggie sauce with the basil and oregano if desired.  Add sugar if needed. Cook about 10 minutes to warm through.  Serve over pasta!

A Classic!

While I love summer, my favorite season is fall.  I love the cool air of fall, the leaves turning, the pumpkins . . . all of that.  I especially love cooking heartier meals that only seem appropriate in the fall and winter.  So as soon as the cool weather comes, I start planning to make some of my favorites that I haven't had since March.

And what was one of the first meals that I made?

Stuffed peppers!  Always a classic.  And kind of a good transitional meal since you can use peppers from your garden (if you have any left).  What I love about stuffed peppers is the fact that you can stuff them with anything.  In the past I have used couscous, chicken, sausage, rice, and ground turkey - not all together though!  But this time, I just made it the way my mom made it.  I consider this the classic way.  How do you make stuffed peppers?

Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients:
4 green or red bell peppers, tops taken off and seeds and ribs removed
olive oil cooking spray
1 lb ground sirloin
salt, pepper, onion flakes and oregano to taste
2 C brown or white rice
jarred pasta sauce
parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Slightly soften the bell peppers by sticking them in the microwave.  (AFC note: It took me about three to four 30 sec increments to soften 3 green peppers.  Work in small time increments so you don't overcook.) 
Spray a large skillet with olive oil spray and add the ground sirloin and spices to taste.  Brown over medium high heat.  Meanwhile, cook the rice.

When the rice is done, add it to the browned ground sirloin and stir in enough pasta sauce to coat the rice and beef.  If you want your beef mixture to be saucy, just add more sauce!

Line your topless peppers up in a baking dish (AFC note: I used a loaf pan) and fill each pepper up with the beef mixture.  If you have extra beef mixture (like I did), you can put it in the bottom of the dish around the peppers. 

Top the beef mixture with some extra sauce.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.  Devour!!