STUFFED PEPPERS | stuffed bell peppers recipe + meal prep tips

When it comes to family favorite dinners, it's hard to beat stuffed peppers. The bell pepper is the perfect round device for holding a variety of ingredients. And today I'm sharing more of a classic version that is stuffed with ground beef, garlic, onions, tomatoes, and rice. But as you know, I always like to sneak a little extra greens into all of my meals. I'm also adding chopped spinach. And once it's chopped and wilted down, unsuspecting family members won't even know it's there. Stuffed bell peppers are loaded with flavor and a great healthy option, but they're usually not the fastest recipe to make and take about an hour. But I've got a tip for you today that will cut that time nearly in half, making them the perfect weeknight meal. One last bonus of stuffed peppers is that they make for delicious leftovers in meal prep. So even if you're one person, feel free to make this entire batch and freeze all the leftovers. All right, let me show you how to make them. To get started, we'll prep some of the stuffing ingredients, and that includes dicing half of a large onion. If your onion is a bit on the smaller side, feel free to dice the entire thing and then set that aside. Next, you'll need a 14 1⁄2-ounce can of diced tomatoes. You could certainly add diced fresh tomatoes in this recipe, but I'm particularly fond of this can of fire-roasted tomatoes because it adds that smoky depth of flavor. So just drain this can and set them aside. In typical Downshiftology fashion, where I'm always trying to think of ways where I can sneak more veggies into my recipes, I'm adding two cups of baby spinach. I like to give it a rough chop so that once it wilts down, the pieces are small, and most people won't even know it's there. Now, I do add a small sprinkle of Monterey Jack cheese to the tops of my stuffed peppers, but you could keep this recipe 100% dairy-free if you'd like. You could also drizzle some of my cashew sour cream on top for a creamy, dairy-free alternative. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and then let's chat about the bell peppers. You can use any color bell pepper in this recipe. It's really up to you. But if you're wondering why bell peppers range in price with green always the cheapest, it's because green bell peppers are the least ripe and have a slightly bitter taste to them. All bell peppers start green, but when they're allowed to fully ripen on the vine, they turn vibrant colors like yellow, orange, and red. And when they're fully ripe, they're sweeter, have more nutrients, and thus are a bit more expensive. Just a little fun fact for the day. So you'll need six bell peppers for this recipe. And as you can see, I like to cut my bell peppers in half lengthwise from top to bottom, more like a boat, rather than slicing the top off so they're more like a cup. There's a few reasons for this. First, you don't waste any of the bell pepper this way. Second, they don't topple over when you try to slice into them and spill filling everywhere. And lastly, they're much easier to store in flat storage containers for meal prep because while they might range in height, they don't vary too much in width. So cutting them in half lengthwise means they'll always fit flat in your storage containers. I should also mention one more benefit of slicing the bell peppers lengthwise, and that's that you can use either a casserole pan or sheet pan for baking them because you don't have to worry about them toppling over. Once you've got all your bell peppers sliced and have removed the seeds, drizzle them with a little bit of olive oil and rub them both inside and out. This is where we're gonna save time on the recipe because you'll pre-bake the bell peppers for about 15 minutes while you're simultaneously cooking up the filling. So place them flat side down, which will allow them to steam, similar to how we cook butternut or spaghetti squash, and place them in the oven. You'll need one and a half cups of cooked rice for this recipe, and you can use any variety of rice, white, brown, or a mix, like this wild rice blend that I love. So I'll rinse half a cup of rice because rice usually triples in size when it's cooked, and add that to a pot of boiling water. And if you watched my rice video, you know that this pasta method where you just dump it into boiling water is my preferred method for cooking rice. While the rice is cooking, heat a saute pan on medium-high heat and drizzle a little olive oil. Add the diced onion and three minced garlic cloves and give that a stir for about a minute or so. Then add one pound of ground beef and use your spatula to break it up while it cooks. The great thing about this recipe is that it's really versatile, so if you're not a fan of ground beef, feel free to use ground turkey or ground chicken as well. Cook the meat until it's nice and browned, and if you need to drain off some grease, go ahead and do that. At this point, my rice is done, so I'll drain that in a strainer in the sink. If you have leftover rice in your fridge from a previous recipe, that's great to use in these stuffed peppers as well. So to my ground beef, I'll add the tomatoes, rice, chopped spinach, a half a tablespoon of Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Then I'll stir it for about a minute or until my spinach has wilted down. Now that the bell peppers have precooked for about 15 minutes, I'll take them out of the oven and just place them on the stovetop, then use tongs to flip them over. They'll be slightly soft, which means that once we fill them with stuffing, we don't have to cook them very long now. And remember that our filling is already precooked as well. Use a large spoon to transfer the filling to the bell peppers, and sometimes it's easier to use a small spoon to help guide the filling in without creating too much of a mess. If I do spill some filling, I just use the tongs to pick it up and place it back in a bell pepper. Once your filling is evenly divided between all of the halves, sprinkle on a little cheese if you'd like, and then place them back in the oven. At this point, they only need about 20 minutes to cook rather than the normal 40 to 45 minutes. And while they're cooking, you can slice up some parsley for the final garnish. Remove the bell peppers from the oven, and if you're anything like me, your stomach will be growling right about now because it knows the deliciousness that's coming its way. So quickly sprinkle them with parsley or other herbs, admire how beautiful they are, and transfer them to a plate. I should also add that I frequently serve this recipe for parties, and it's always a hit because it does present well and it tastes as good as it looks. If you're meal prepping this recipe, it's as simple as transferring the stuffed peppers to a storage container and placing them in the fridge or freezer. They'll last for up to five days in the fridge and up to two months in the freezer. And then to reheat them, you can use a microwave, oven, or toaster oven until they're warmed through. This is one of my favorite recipes to meal prep, and I always seem to have a batch in the freezer, which comes in handy for those nights I need something in a pinch. But I'm gonna eat one of these fresh and warm, and now that the stuffed peppers are cooked, you can see how easy they are to slice in half without toppling over, and that filling is oh so juicy and flavorful. I hope you guys loved this recipe, and if you did, make sure to give it a thumbs up, leave a comment below, share it with your family and friends, and I will see you again next week with another tasty recipe.