Mum's Stuffed Peppers

Yesterday was me and Dan's first full day back from vacation, and our first day of eating a home-cooked meal since last Thursday. I made my Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce to use for a few recipes this week, and just to have on hand for lunch or whenever. Seriously, this sauce is amazing and I want to eat it every week. I also made Italian Parmesan Chicken, which was a dish I promised to make again after the first time. The chicken always comes out juicy and tender with great flavor. Served with some roasted potatoes and broccoli, you can't go wrong.

I am very excited to be able to share tonight's dinner with you. When I decided to make my crock pot sauce, I decided to think of some ways to use the sauce other than on top of pasta and just straight up spoon-feeding it to myself. What's so exciting about tonight's recipe? It's my absolute most favorite thing that my mum makes. I have come to find out that my favorite dishes are always simple meals that can be thrown together quickly but taste like you slaved for days. That's these peppers. Simple, basic, and totally to die for. With my crock pot sauce, they might be the greatest meal on the planet. My mom usually uses a plainer sauce, so a little amped up sauce makes them even better (try making my sauce, Mum!).

For my wedding shower, my mother made a recipe book compiled of recipes contributed from my extended family members. I was glad to see this was in the book, along with my other favorite mom-made meal, French Onion Soup. I hope to be sharing more family recipes with you as I try them all!

I cut this recipe in half since Dan won't eat stuffed peppers. I also had some of the steps done before hand, which made this an even quicker meal to throw together. I used half of my ground beef for my sauce yesterday and saved half for the peppers today. And with sauce already made, I had that step done as well, but any tomato or pasta sauce from a can or jar will do if you don't have homemade sauce. The only extra step I had to do today was to parboil my peppers and cook up some white rice. Parboiling is similar to blanching, where you boil a food for a few minutes to help speed up the cooking process. It lets the peppers get a little tender, so they don't need to bake as long. I parboiled mine for 3 minutes and then rinsed them under some cold water. I mixed up my beef, sauce, and rice, and stuffed the peppers and they were ready for the oven! The recipe below is for 4 peppers. My sauce already had garlic and onion in it, so I did not add them for mine.

Mum's Stuffed Peppers
from my mum!

4-6 green bell peppers, tops cut off and insides cleaned out
1 lb. ground beef
1 cup cooked white rice
2 tbsp. minced garlic
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 cup tomato sauce, plus extra for topping

1. Preheat oven to 350. Parboil peppers for 3-4 minutes and rinse under cold water.
2. Brown ground beef and drain. Add the rice, garlic, onion and 1 cup of sauce to the pan and mix together.
3. Stuff the peppers with the hamburg mix and top with a little more sauce.
4. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 minutes.

I like to mash mine up