Stuffed Green Peppers

I made stuffed green peppers for dinner last night. We don't have them very often, but they were very good. I used a recipe from the cookbook 365 Quick, Easy & Inexpensive Dinner Menus. The only changes I made was using brown rice and instead of using American cheese slices, I used reduced fat Mozzarella. I also cut way back on the salt. The next time I make these I think I will set aside a small amount of the tomato mixture and pour it over the peppers once the rice mixture has been spooned in.

Stuffed Green Peppers

6 large bell peppers

1 lb. lean ground beef

4 cups cooked rice

1 quart stewed tomatoes

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

6 slices American cheese

Core peppers and discard seeds. Rinse out and place in a large pan of hot water. Bring water to a boil and then remove from heat. Prepare rice according to package directions. Blend tomatoes in the blender on the puree setting for about 10 seconds. Pour tomatoes in with the rice. In a skillet, sprinkle 1 teaspoon salt over crumbled ground beef and brown until cooked through. Drain mean on paper towel and then add to the rice. Add remaining teaspoon salt and the pepper to the rice mixture. Stir will. Remove peppers from water and drain. Place peppers, cavity side up, in a deep casserole dish or baking pan. Spoon rice mixture into pepper cavities. If you have remaining rice and meat, just layer it around the bell peppers. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Top each pepper with a slice of American cheese and let bake until cheese melts. Serve immediately. Yield: 6 servings.