The Perfect Day

Yesterday was one of those days where everything was picture perfect!!  From the very beginning to the very end.  After doing our morning chores, my precious mother in law came over to play with the girls for a bit so I could go exercise go to Whole Foods for the first time!!  She comes on Thursdays to help me out and give me a little sanity time whether it be exercise or errands and it is so appreciated and needed!

After soaking in the sights and smells of such an incredible store, I came home, put up the goods, had lunch and we all went to the park!  Its so nice having this incredible weather this winter!  We have been out so much!  This time last year, Paige and I were running out of creative hibernation activities!  

I have been dreaming up the perfect stuffed bell pepper recipe for several weeks and finally came up with exactly how I wanted to do it after combining several recipes and making my personal changes to them all.  So while at Whole Foods I purchased the most beautiful peppers...

  

After a month or so of a lot of unsuccessful recipes, it was so nice to have a new one that was out of this world for all of us!!  Healthy enough for Tyler, tasty enough for me and approved by the little critic!  This definitely could be in the weekly rotation!  

I realized yesterday that I don't own two important kitchen necessities 1) a rolling pin 2) a steam basket.  Most of the recipes called for steaming the peppers a couple times but I remember my friend Divina mentioning roasting hers in the oven first.  So I decided to combine both!  Here is what I did:

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees

Wash and cut off tops of 6 red bell peppers

I placed a glass pan with 2 inches of hot water on the bottom rack of my oven then placed the clean, empty peppers on a cookie sheet and sprayed them lightly with olive oil Pam.  

*I baked them like this for 10 minutes but 5-7 would be plenty.  After this process is complete, reduce your oven to 375 degrees so it will be ready for baking the stuffed peppers to perfection!

Filling

1 lb ground beef, browned (if you like onion, that would be tasty but since my hubs doesn't approve and I'm nursing, we left out!)

1/2-3/4 packet taco seasoning-low sodium

1 cup cooked rice (brown or white)

1 can black beans

1 can mexi Rotel diced tomatoes

Mexican blend cheese

After your meat is browned add in your taco seasoning, rice, black beans and tomatoes. Stir gently to combine.  Then stuff your peppers full!

After your peppers are full, put a good handful of mexi cheese over each one...one recipe I read said to use block cheese and cut a chunk and put down into the center of your stuffing. I will probably try that too but for prettiness I used grated cheese.  

Bake these beauties for 25 minutes at 375 degrees, COVERED.  I sprayed my foil lightly with the olive oil Pam and also "tented" the foil to avoid losing any delicious cheese!  

This was oh so good and oh so filling!  Easy and quick to make too I promise!  There are a couple of different steps but you can easily do them all at once.  I could have been full with just one but I had to have two!  A big salad and one pepper would be a perfect dinner and maybe a few tortilla chips and salsa!  I had a side of sour cream with mine and added extra cheese!  The peppers were so tender and delicious!  Tyler growled a little when he saw the meal and was in hog heaven after he tried it!!  

You should make this soon!!!!  Oh, if you have little ones, I had just enough filling leftover with this recipe for 2 portions of toddler mix.  Paige loves meat, beans, rice and cheese so she loved it and has enough for lunch today.  

Happy eating!!  I can't wait until lunch to have these again!!!