Old-School Stuffed Peppers

I don't know why, but I've had a hankering for stuffed peppers lately.

What makes this odd, is that I HATE -- venhemently hate -- peppers. Most of my aggression is towards green peppers (which I think taste like toxic green clumps of dirt) but still.

Peppers are not my thing.

Nonetheless, I was hungry for them. So, I took out an ancient family recipe card, and made some changes, and came up with stuffed peppers.

They were deeeeeeeeelicious.

Old-School Stuffed Peppers

(Makes 8 medium-sized peppers full)

8 medium-sized peppers (I used all red, since my farmer's market had them)

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef or ground turkey (your pick)

1/2 cup minced onion

1 1/2 cups cooked rice (white or brown; your pick)

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2-2 cloves of garlic, minced

2-15 oz. cans of tomato sauce

1 cup shredded cheese (your pick on type) -- optional

Directions

- Cut the tops of the peppers off, remove all the membranes and seeds. You can stuff these peppers whole, but I like to cut them in half and stuff each pepper half. Cut them however you'd prefer to do it.

- Cook the peppers in enough boiling water to cover them for 5 minutes, then drain

- Cook the ground meat and onion in a large skillet for 8-10 minutes over medium heat, until meat is browned and cooked through. Drain the meat and onion combination and return to the skillet

- Stir in the rice, salt, garlic and 1 can of the tomato sauce, cook until warmed through

- Heat oven to 350 degrees F

- Stuff pepper halves (or whole peppers if you go that route) and place in a casserole dish, stuffing-side up.

- If you have leftover filling, go ahead and spread that over the stuffed peppers

- Pour the remaining can of tomato sauce over the stuffed peppers
- Cover and bake for 45 minutes; uncover and bake another 15 minutes or until peppers are tender

- Sprinkle with cheese (optional); serve.