Oscar's Stuffed Peppers

My new obsession is Oscar's stuffed bell peppers. I can't get enough of it! I ask him to make it every week because they are deeelicous!

I typically do the cooking in our household but sometimes Oscar jumps in and every time he does, we end up loving the recipe. I always tell him he should be the family cook because he seems to be a natural but he isn't falling for it!

He found a recipe for stuffed bell peppers on allrecipes.com but it called for chorizo sausage. He modified it with Italian turkey sausage to cut out some of the fat. We typically substitute ground turkey or turkey sausage when recipes call for ground beef or pork sausage. The recipe is so delicious I wanted to share.

Ingredients

• 6 bell peppers, tops cut off and seeded
• 1 pound chorizo sausage (we substituted Italian turkey sausage)
• 1 stalk celery, minced
• 1 carrot, minced
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• chopped fresh parsley
• chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice (we substituted organic brown long grain rice)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/3 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Directions

• Bring a large pot of water to boil. Place peppers in boiling water, and cook 5 minutes. Remove, and set aside to cool.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a large skillet, cook sausage until almost brown. Drain fat. Stir in celery, carrots, onions, and garlic. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, basil, rice, and water. Cover, and simmer until rice is cooked, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and mix in Monterey Jack, Cheddar, and Mozzarella cheeses.
• Place peppers upright on a baking sheet. Stuff each pepper with the chorizo mixture. Sprinkle extra cheese on top.
• Bake in preheated oven about 30 minutes.

Another modification we made was using cooked brown rice instead of uncooked rice. It was just easier and added extra flavor because we cook our brown rice in chicken broth. Also, we only use reduced fat cheddar cheese instead of all three cheeses the recipe asks for.

The recipe is a little laborious but so worth it in the end and because it calls for 6 peppers we have plenty of left overs for lunch the next day. Another thing we love to do is cook extra for lunch left overs!

If you like bell peppers, you will not be disappointed by this recipe. Enjoy!