Roasted Stuffed Bell Peppers

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I love roasted stuffed peppers, they are so easy to make and you can stuff them with just about anything.  My daughter fell in love with them too when I made Mexican Inspired Stuffed Peppers and asks for them frequently ever since.  Then there were the Stuffed Breakfast Peppers that I made a few months ago, have you tried them yet?  So good.  This time I decided to fill the peppers with some left over rice from this vegetable stir fry, and use what I had on hand in the fridge.  They turned out pretty dang good, not to toot my own horn.  I could never get a big head about being a good cook because my little boy hates most everything I make.

In fact after one look at these peppers he whined and asked if he could eat macaroni and cheese.  Hey now there’s an idea – stuffed mac n cheese peppers.  He would much rather eat boxed food, sometimes I make the mistake of saying something is “homemade”, then he usually changes his mind and doesn’t want it. Yes, that one keeps me humble and on my toes.  So if your up for some whining and complaining about why you never fix anything good, you might want to try these out ;)

Rice And Sausage Roasted Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:
4 bell peppers
1/2 yellow onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
1/2 zucchini chopped
1 clove minced garlic
6 oz. ground pork hot sausage
1 1/2 cups of cooked rice
4 oz. cream cheese softened (I used fat free cream cheese)
8 slices of cheddar cheese or your favorite variety.
olive oil

Directions:
Step 1: Wash and cut peppers in half, take seeds out and veins by cutting out with a pairing knife or scrape seeds and veins out with a spoon. Put peppers in an oven safe dish and set aside.
Step 2: Chop the onions, carrots and zucchini small. In a medium size skillet saute the carrots and onions on medium in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until soft. Add the zucchini and garlic to the mixture and cook for about a minute. Transfer the vegetables to a medium size bowl and set aside.
Step 3:In the same skillet that the vegetables were cooked in cook the sausage until browned. Drain fat and add the sausage to the bowl with the vegetables.
Step 4: Add cooked rice to the sausage and vegetables and stir. Add the softened cream cheese to the the mixture and mix well.
Step 5: Turn oven onto Broil. Prepare peppers by drizzling olive oil on the then rubbing it on all sides. Roast peppers for 20 minutes turning over half way through the cooking time.
Step 6: After peppers have roasted partially fill the peppers up with the rice mixture pressing down the mixture and adding more until all peppers are filled.
Step 7: Turn oven down to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and cook the stuffed peppers for 15 minutes. Then pull out and put cheese on top and cook five minutes longer or until cheese is all melted. Take out and enjoy.
Serves: 4

Cooks Notes:
The sausage I used had plenty of seasoning in it so I didn’t need to add any. If you want to add some herbs to give yours more flavor, try fresh or dried thyme, or fresh parsley. Both would be delicious.

So how about you – any favorite ways you like to stuff a pepper?

~Suzanne

Tagged as: dinner