Last night I was looking for a way to get rid of the ground beef that had been in the fridge just shy of too long but I wanted a meal that wasn't an old standby i.e. meat sauce (a secret i may never share), meatloaf (good, but sparingly), or any number of tired recipes I've overused as of late. My dad happened to call while I was poking around my typical internet-recipe haunts and suggested stuffing bell peppers with beef and rice (something, he said, his mom used to do a lot). I took his advice and set off to hit up the local grocer for some peppers. I grabbed two green bells (they are typically the cheapest) and then - because it spoke to me - I picked up a pasilla pepper.
Once home, I was debating how to flavor the beef and rice when I remembered a magical box in the cupboard Hamburger Helper, Mexican Cheesy Enchilada !
Betty Crocker did all the thinking for me. I prepared the beef and rice as directed (I added bacon of course). Meanwhile, I cored the peppers and boiled them in salted water for about 2 minutes. I tucked little hunks of processed cheese food (rhymes with "tell Rita") at the bottom and stuffed the peppers full of the rice and beef mixture. I topped with shredded cheddar and put them under the broiler for 20 minutes.
I put the bell pepper in a bed of kidney beans re-fried with chili powder and honey. The pasilla pepper I split in half and topped it with the cheese sauce graciously provided by Mrs. Crocker.
The meal turned out great, and was just what I was looking for. Next time I may use red or orange bell peppers (the green ones were a bit bitter for my taste) but the pasilla was the ultimate stuffer. It was sweet and smokey and complimented the beans perfectly.
Huh, i like it. I may have to try it.
ReplyDeleteBTW, i have a secret weapon for our proposed recipe exchange. 'Secret' in that it was handed to me, and you may have not thought of it yet. Muhahaha! I just grabbed some ground beef, i may try something like this. I'll let you know what turns out of the attempt.