Recipe of the Week!

Stuffed Peppers & Zucchini

This was an experimental recipe. I have been venturing into the world of peppers - of which I have never been a real fan - but I am starting to like some stuffed peppers. I LOVE stuffed grape leaves. My freshman year roommate had a grandma that would always send her back to PSU with a bunch of them...I have never had any as good as those. I have made them myself in the past and the filling is so good. I will have to debut them on the blog at some point. Anyway, I tried to make a similar filling for these. If I ever make these again, I would cook the peppers for a little bit before stuffing them, since I completely cooked the filling first. Overall, though, I thought the zucchini was better than the peppers.

Ingredients:
5 or 6 Green peppers and/or zucchini halves
1 lb ground beef
2 cups rice, cooked
1 onion, diced
lemon juice
4 cloves garlic
mint
salt
pepper
olive oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Hollow out green peppers, half zucchini and remove the seeds to have room for the filling. At this point I would probably roast the peppers for 15 minutes before stuffing them. Begin cooking rice according to package directions. Meanwhile, for the filling, coat a large pan with olive oil, saute onions and garlic until translucent. Add ground beef and cook until brown. Season mixture with mint, salt, and pepper to taste. Add cooked rice to the ground beef mixture. Stuff peppers/zucchini with meat and rice mixture.

Add about a half inch of water to a baking dish. Place peppers/zucchini in the baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Place in oven for about 20 minutes to a half hour. Transfer cooked peppers to plate and serve.