Tag: weeknight

Who is surprised, back with another Budget Bytes recipe! This one is her Unstuffed Bell Peppers. All the flavors and comfort of stuffed peppers, but made in one pot with chopped up peppers for ease of eating! No more trying to figure out how to saw through your stuffed pepper without losing any of the filling.

I doubled this recipe for my 2 roommates and I just to guarantee plenty of leftovers, but it couldn’t have been easier. Just sauté your veggies and meat, throw in your rice, and then hang out! We also decided to use red bell peppers instead of green like Beth uses because we like the flavor (although green bell peppers do tend to be cheaper) and we used ground turkey instead of beef because we LOVE ground turkey. This would also work great with ground chicken, ground sausage, or no meat at all if vegetarian is more your style! Although if going meatless, I would suggest upping the vegetables or adding something like diced potatoes to bulk it up.

So try Beth’s Unstuffed Bell Peppers for a super easy weeknight meal! With the best leftovers (perhaps even better than the first day…)

Unstuffed Bell Peppers

Serves: 6

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 1 clove garlic
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 bell peppers
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 pound ground beef (or other meat)
• 1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup long grain white rice, uncooked
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1.5 cups beef (or chicken or vegetable) broth
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

1. Mince the garlic and dice the onion and bell pepper
2. Add the olive oil and meat to a deep skillet. Cook over medium heat until it is fully browned
3. Add the diced onion, bell pepper, minced garlic, basil, oregano, and pepper to the skillet. Continue to cook and stir until the onions are soft
4. Add the diced tomatoes (with juices), uncooked rice, and broth. Give everything a brief stir to combine
5. Place a lid on the skillet and turn the heat up to medium-high. Allow the broth to come to a full boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and let it continue to simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn the heat off and let it rest with the lid on for another 5 minutes
6. Once the rice has rested, remove the lid and fluff it with a fork, gently folding all the ingredients together (the vegetables may rice to the top during the cooking process)
7. Pour the tomato sauce over the top, sprinkle with the cheese, and place the lid back on to allow the residual heat to melt the cheese
8. Remove lid and enjoy! Season with salt if necessary