Stuffed Peppers 

Old Fashioned Stuffed Peppers with beef, onions, zucchini, and rice. Can be made in advance. The leftovers are amazing!  Easy to make and always a hit.

Ingredients:

– 6–8 Green Peppers – Cored (inside flesh scooped out) – optional – 2 Red onions with middle layers scooped out by spoon – 2 pounds of ground beef – 1 medium onion – chopped – 1 large tomato – like a beefsteak – 1 zucchini – peeled and chopped – 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder – 1 tsp. of salt – ground black pepper – a couple of twists on the pepper grinder – or – a couple of dashes – 1 Tbsp. of Worcestershire sauce – 1 large can (about 16 oz.) of tomato sauce – divided – Cooked Rice – 2 cups of cooked white rice – 6 Tbsp. Butter (divided)  – unsalted or salted – optional: shredded cheese for topping

Ingredients:

– In a large pot, place cored peppers (and optional cored onions) in about an inch of water – Boil the cored peppers until tender (about 10 minutes) – In a large, nonstick skillet, cook the hamburger – *I like to drain the hamburger meat (if necessary) and then use a blender to make the hamburger texture super fine – In the same skillet with the hamburger added back to it, Add the onion, zucchini, tomato, garlic, salt, pepper, 8 oz. of the tomato sauce, and Worcestershire sauce – Continue to cook until all of the vegetables are tender

Ingredients:

– Mix the rice into the beef mixture – When peppers are tender, drain the water from the peppers and let them cool off a bit – In another large ovenproof pot – or – crock pot, add half of the tomato sauce to the bottom of the pot

Ingredients:

– start filling each pepper to the top with the rice mixture – Place the peppers, standing up in the oven-proof pot, – or a crock pot – on top of the sauce – Add a little more tomato sauce to the top of each pepper – Cover the pot, and if you’re using the oven (bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes) if you’re using a crockpot, place it on low for the day – Just before serving, add some tomato sauce from the bottom of the pot to the tops of the pepper, and about 1 Tbsp. of butter to the top of each cooked stuffed pepper – while the peppers are still warm you can add (optional) shredded cheese