Cheesy Stuffed Peppers

Start by cleaning the green peppers. Cut off the tops, clean out the insides (take out the seeds and membranes), and rinse and dry them. Then, in a pot of salted boiling water, boil the peppers for a few minutes, just until they start to soften. Remove them from the water. Drain and pat dry. Sprinkle the inside of the peppers with salt, and set aside for later.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Pull out a very large skillet and heat it over medium heat. Once hot, add beef and diced onions and cook until the meat is cooked through and no pink remains, about 5 minutes. Mop up the extra fat with a paper towel and then season with salt and a touch of pepper.

Into the meat and onions, add canned diced tomatoes, rice, water (that’s been mixed with the bouillon cube) and Worcestershire sauce. Give it a good stir, cover, and simmer to let the rice get tender. This should take about 15 minutes. You may need to lower your heat a touch, but as long as your mixture is simmering, and not boiling, you’ll be fine! Remove from heat and stir in the first amount of cheddar cheese.

Place some of the beef and rice mixture into the bottom of each green pepper—just enough to fill half of each pepper. Set these upright in a small, glass baking pan. It should be big enough so that all 6 peppers can fit, but small enough that they won’t tip over. Set this aside to make the tomato sauce.

Combine the condensed tomato soup with a splash (or two) of water, or until the tomato soup becomes the consistency of gravy. It should run off your spoon, but not be watery.

Top the beef mixture with the tomato sauce and top that with the rest of the beef and rice mixture. Then top with more tomato sauce. Top with more cheese. As much or as little as you like.

Cover the pan with foil. Make sure to spray the foil with baking spray before covering the pan with it!

Bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes, or until heated through and the cheese is melted. If your cheese isn’t melted after 30 minutes, remove the foil, and broil (watch it the entire time) until the cheese is melted to your liking!

Slightly adapted from Allrecipes recipe for Stuffed Green Peppers I.