Stuffed Peppers

One of my favorite parts about summer is the abundance of fresh, local, delicious produce.  It's easy to walk down to the Farmers Market and buy $45 worth of fresh fruits, vegetables, and spices...but once I get it home I struggle to turn those odds and ends into a meal before they go bad.

This recipe is good for several reasons. First of all, it allows you to put as many (or as few) veggies as you'd like. Secondly, you can make as much or as little as you'd like -depending on how many you are feeding. Lastly, it's SO easy it's almost ridiculous. Anything that allows me to start dinner, then walk away for several hours is the key to my heart! (crock pot- booyah!)

Step #1: Mix the following ingredients in your crock pot (plus whatever else you want)

• Vegetarian meatballs
• Sliced mushrooms
• Olives
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
  (+ 2 cans of water)
• Cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup mayo
• Fresh sliced tomatoes
• Crushed red pepper
• Chili powder
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• Dried onions

Step #2: Turn the crock pot on low and go about your daily chores. Come back 5 or so hours later.

The meatballs should stew themselves out of the meatball shape and should just turn into a sloppy, gooey  consistency.

Step #3: Cook some rice and shred some cheese, then hollow out the insides of two large green peppers. I layered the cheese, rice, and meatball concoction until the pepper was full to the top. Then I stood the peppers up in a cupcake pan so they wouldn't tip over and baked them in the oven on 400 for about 10 minutes...just long enough to melt the cheese and make the edges of the pepper start to brown and curl.

Once they were out of the oven, I cut them in half and sprinkled them with more chili powder and crushed red pepper (we love spicy!). Delish!

Please keep in mind that this is another one of those things that we eat that tastes better than it looks. :)

Ashlee: 1
Hunger: 0