Tag: Recipe

Good afternoon! Welcome to my first actual recipe post!

This is the first time I have ever made or even eaten this. It was surprisingly good. Now, here’s the recipe. You will need:

• Bell Peppers — I had 4, this would easily fill 6 or 8
• 1 lb hamburger meat
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oregano
• Parsley
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• Rice
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Grated or shredded cheese of your choice

For this recipe I used homegrown green bell peppers that were given to my girlfriend. A couple of them were fairly small, I think a rainbow of colors for the peppers would really give this dish a lot of visual pop. I also used a package of Uncle Ben’s long grain wild rice that you can toss in the microwave for 90 seconds to save time. Feel free to prepare whatever kind of rice you prefer.

Steps

Drizzle a couple teaspoons or so of olive oil into a good sized skillet. I believe mine is 12 inches (thats what she said) but I’m probably making that up. Let it get hot over medium heat.

Add the chopped onion and cook for about 5 minutes until softened and pretty.

Add the chopped garlic and let it cook for about a minute or so until your whole place smells like heaven.

Preheat your oven to 400°.

Add the tomato paste and hamburger meat, and a touch of salt and pepper, cook until it’s browned. You can drain the fat if you’re so inclined, but return the meat mixture to the pan once you’ve done that.

While that is cooking throw your rice in the microwave and follow package instructions.

Add the rice and the can of diced tomatoes to the meat, add a bit more salt and pepper, and also oregano. Let this simmer for about 5-6 minutes to let the flavors marry.

While that’s going on, grate your cheese. I used Monterey Jack. Then cut the top off your bell peppers and scoop out the membrane and seeds.

Spoon the meat and rice mixture into the bell peppers and arrange them in a baking dish. Top with the cheese. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over them, then wrap in foil. Bake 35 minutes, remove the foil, then bake 10 more minutes until the cheese is gooey and bubbly.

Top with parsley and enjoy.

Notes

I am not a fancy cook and have no formal training whatsoever so I never have any idea what to pair with foods. I served it with some boxed macaroni and cheese, a simple salad, and some croissants. It paired very well with a Cabernet Sauvignon. Due to these bell peppers being homegrown and not store bought, a couple of them were kind of small, and I only had four of them, so I prepared a LOT more meat/rice than I needed to fill them. I put the rest of it in the baking dish and baked it right alongside the peppers. It made a delicious meal by itself later that night.

This meal was a little expensive for me since I just moved and had to buy virtually everything. I actually spent around 75 dollars at the grocery store to have everything I needed to make this meal. Breaking it down as best I can into the actual cost for the ingredients used and you will spend around $15 for this meal. It easily fed two with leftovers remaining. More importantly, it was absolutely delicious.

I am also not a photographer and since it was the first time I had ever made this I didn’t really take any photos of the “process.” I’ll be more on point with photos going forward, though.

Feel free to leave any criticisms or other thoughts in the comments.