Oldie But Goodie Stuffed Peppers with Tomato Gravy

There is nothing more comforting than making a dish your Mom used to make. That's why I blog I guess, to have a record of my recipes I can hand down to my kids.  My paternal Grandma was an excellent cook. She never left her recipes in written form but over the years with some practice I have learned to make them by myself.

This stuffed pepper recipe was my Moms'. The things I have changed are instead of using instant rice I make my rice in a rice cooker.  I can also make long grain rice on the stove but a rice cooker is awesome! Her sauce she uses canned Campbells' tomato soup. I use tomato sauce with a few added ingredients.  This past week I found an entire bag of 8 yellow peppers for 79 cents. Can't beat that! We like extra gravy to put over the rice and sop up with a piece of bread. I also used this sauce and stuffing for cabbage rolls. (Yes I know my Pyrex has seen better days lol)

You can use whatever colored pepper you like.

The Sauce

1 can tomato sauce
1 TBSP vinegar
1/2 c water (you may have to add more during baking)

The Peppers
1 pot boiling water
2 Peppers per person 8 total
1 1/2 lb ground beef
2 cups cooked and cooled rice
1 tsp salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

First you need to cut the tops off the peppers and remove anything you don't want to eat like the seeds. A little bit of membrane is OK. Place the peppers in the boiling water and let boil for about 5 minutes. You just want to soften them. You will have to tip them over to make sure all the surface has a chance to soften in the water. Remove and drain on paper towels. Let cool for about 5-10 minutes.

In the meantime, in a bowl add the ground beef, rice (start off with one cup) salt and pepper. Season with salt and pepper and kneed with your hands to combine. You need enough of the beef and rice to fill the peppers to the top. This will also be dependant on how big the peppers are.

Place 95% of the sauce into the baking dish. Reserve the other 5% for topping. Place in oven and bake for one hour. Mid way through the baking time add about a half cup of water to the bottom o f the baking dish. Take the peppers out at the one hour mark and cut a test one in half. If not done bake for another 15 minutes until no longer pink. Serve over rice with the sauce over the peppers and rice.