Stuffed Green Peppers

Stuffed Green Peppers

1 pound ground meat
1 medium onion
½ pound of sliced mushrooms (rarely have these on hand –but they are nice to add)
2 cups of tomato juice
½ cup brown rice
½ tsp salt
Dash of pepper
Oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme and Worcestershire sauce
4 oz. grated cheese – I like cheddar
6 green peppers—cleaned and cut in half

Brown meat and drain if needed. Saute onion and mushrooms. Add tomato juice; bring to a boil. Add rice; cover and simmer until rice is tender (40 min). Add seasonings and cheese. Remove core and stem from peppers – wash out seeds and half peppers.
Freeze at this time.
Defrost before baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min.

My notes
*****I use what meat I have on hand—turkey, venison or ground beef. I add all the spices. And if I have cooked rice I use one cup of cooked rice and a 14 oz. can of tomato sauce instead of the uncooked rice and the tomato juice. Also I put the cheese on top just before baking instead of mixing it in since some in our family can't have the dairy. Also I like to make these, stuff them and let them flash freeze on cookie sheets in the freezer – then once they are frozen solid, I pack them in the vacume sealer so they last longer as it's hard to get all the air out of the bags otherwise. Sometimes I'll add a handful of chopped celery, or a clove of garlic in with the onion. The original recipe is from the LLL cookbook Whole foods for the Whole Family—by the way – an excellent cookbook if you are trying to go whole grain and wanting to use more whole grains in your diet.