Crystal's Stuffed Peppers

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Every so often I get a craving when I'm reading a blog.  This occurred earlier in the month when I read this blog post from How Sweet It Is.  I hadn't eaten stuffed peppers in...like...forever...when I read this.  I honestly probably had not had them since high school or longer.  And these looked so...stinkin'...good.  Mmmm...peppers...

OK, back to the subject at hand because my mouth started to drool a little bit in remembrance of this meal.  In fact, this became a Dave's Fave right off...with this being only my first attempt at this meal.  Do you know that David told me way back when he was a kid and didn't like peppers, his mom would just give him the filling?  Not that the filling isn't good, but isn't that the entire point of stuffed peppers?  Spoiled...that's all I have to say.  Rotten...spoiled rotten.  And still is by me and the other women in his family (and mine too).  OK, I've gotten it out of my system.

Basically, when I threw this dish together I included section's of the How Sweet It Is recipe along with a couple of others.  I, pretty much, took what I liked about each recipe and made it my own.  Here's what I came up with.

Crystal's Stuffed Peppers
Adapted mostly from How Sweet It Is

6 bell peppers (red, green, orange or yellow-I think red is best)
1 pound ground beef
olive oil
2 shallots, diced
1 head of garlic, minced
red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
parmesan cheese, to taste
1 can Rotel
1/3 cup cream
basil, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Slice the peppers in half (vertically) and remove the ribs/seeds.  Place in dish(s) with innard side facing up (like a bowl).

In a skillet over medium heat, head olive oil.  Add diced shallots and minced garlic, saute until soft and fragrant.  Add beef to the skillet and cook completely.  Drain fat.

While the meat is cooking, mix the Rotel and cream over low heat.  Stir in basil, to taste.

Add rice, red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese into meat mixture, mix.  Then add approximately 1/2 cup of tomato cream sauce to meat mixture, only adding enough to moisten the mixture. 

Add the meat mixture to the halved peppers, stuffing them as full as you can get them.  Pour the rest of the sauce over the tops of the peppers. 

Bake for 20 minutes uncovered.  Cover and bake for another 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Now your problem is figuring out what side dish to make...because this dish has it all...meat, starch and vegetable...  Hmmm...a quandary.