Stuffed Peppers

Craving something spicy and new, I decided that it was high time I took one of our camping-dinner-favorites and turned it into a fabulous at-home recipe.

Ingredients:

- 2 lbs lean hamburger beef
- 3 bell peppers (colors of your choosing)
- 1 C finely crushed Saltines
- 1 Tbsp Canola Oil
- 1/2 C finely chopped onion (I used red, but you can use white or yellow as well)
- 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper, crushed
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder (or 1-2 cloves of fresh, minced garlic)
- 10 oz can of Enchilada Sauce, Green or otherwise

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 375. Grease a 13 x 9 baking pan/dish.
- Take about 2/3rds of one saltine package. Use a rolling pin to crush the crackers within a Ziploc bag. This is the easiest way I found to do it.
- Combine your crusted crackers, beef, spices, oil, and chopped onion in a large bowl. Mix well!
*I prepared the beef ahead of time and kept it in the fridge until about an hour before I was ready to make dinner. It definitely cut down on the preparation time in the evening!*

- Slice your peppers length-wise and "gut them"-- cut out the seeds and stem, but make sure you have a good hallowed-out half to stuff!
- Take the beef mixture and stuff each pepper half, placing them in your prepared baking dish. Make sure the beef makes a sort of mound, not just evenly filled across the pepper. You want extra beef!

- Once the peppers are nicely stuffed, take your enchilada sauce and carefully pour evenly over each pepper. Use just enough to cover the beef, but not too much so that your peppers are drowning. You should have about 1/4 to 1/3rd of the can of sauce left over. You can serve this on the side for people who may want more sauce! *I'm sure they will cook just fine if you use the whole can of sauce, too. I did this because I was using Green Enchilada Sauce and didn't want them to be too spicy for me!*

- Place the dish in your readied oven, uncovered, and cook for around 45 minutes. Check on the peppers about half way through to make sure they aren't over cooking/soggy!


(This recipe was inspired from the Stuffed Peppers recipe in Super Suppers Cookbook. For the original recipe, and plenty more, check out the book!)


Serve hot with a side of Spanish Rice, Black Beans and Rice, Refried Beans, or whatever your heart desires! These peppers probably taste good with just about anything!