Love, Hate & Laziness: Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole

You either love them or you hate them. If you love green peppers, you will love this Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole. But if you don’t, you likely aren’t reading this post anyway. However,  if it’s your kid(s) that hate them, there is hope.Most kids don’t inherently like green peppers because they are kind of bitter and really are an acquired taste. Getting kids to like or even accept particular foods takes a lot of effort; long, hard years of making them “try” things they instinctively recoil at (like onions).  According to the National Centre for Infants, Toddlers and families, children may need to be offered a new food up to as many as 10-15 times before they will eat it. That’s a lot of time investment.

Green Pepper Persistence Pays off!

It took me 7 long years to get my kids to even consider eating onions, but it was worth every minute because I no longer have to listen to the whining and complaining when I cook with them. My strategy was simple – put onions in everything and make the kids pick them out. Laziness will eventually prevail; that is human nature. I really dislike those little baby corns that come in salads, but I’ll often just eat them anyway because I feel lazy and it’s easier than picking them out. And if  laziness doesn’t prevail, then you know you have a diehard hater on your hands and at least you can respect that. After all those years of offering green peppers, my daughter now loves them. My son doesn’t feel the green pepper love yet, but at least he will grudgingly eat them.

Melted cheese helps. But then, doesn’t melted cheese help anything? Melted cheese is like the chocolate of the savoury world- it makes everything better. The addition of melted cheddar cheese to stuffed green peppers is sheer brilliance (I used to sprinkle parmesan on mine). And that is only one of this healthy stuffed pepper casserole’s many redeeming qualities. Just the fact that it’s a casserole is yet another. I used to spend an inordinate amount of time individually stuffing green peppers when I could have been chopping them up and throwing them in a casserole? I wondered where this recipe had been all my life and why I hadn’t thought of this!

So, without further ado, here is my slightly tweaked version of “Five Minutes for Mommy’s” Cheesy Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole (which I found at Mostly Homemade Mom)

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Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole

This simple and delicious unstuffed healthy stuffed green pepper casserole, smothered in gooey melted cheese, is easy to make and requires no stuffing!

Course Main Course

Cuisine North American

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 10 servings

Calories 246 kcal

Author Adapted from:"Five Minutes for Mommy's" Cheesy Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole (which I found at Mostly Homemade Mom)

Ingredients

• 4 cups cooked brown rice * I use instant rice
• 1 lb ground beef ** I use extra lean
• 4-6 large green peppers , diced
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 29 oz can diced tomatoes , drained
• 1 14 oz can corn , drained
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 10 oz can mushrooms
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 cups shredded cheddar sharp cheese * I use low-fat cheese

Instructions

1. Brown ground beef and onion in a large stock pot, drain, remove from pan and set aside.
2. Boil chopped green peppers in water until soft. Drain. You could also cook them for about 5 minutes in the microwave. Cook rice in separate pot.
3. Mix cooked rice, green pepper, ground beef and remaining ingredients (except cheese) together in large bowl.

4. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish or round casserole dish. Top with shredded cheese.

5. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

6. Then turn it up to 500 degrees F and broil for 1-2 minutes until cheese is lightly brown and bubbly. Serve hot.

Recipe Notes

 

 

Nutrition Facts

Stuffed Green Pepper Casserole

Amount Per Serving

Calories 246 Calories from Fat 54

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 6g 9%

Saturated Fat 2g 10%

Cholesterol 34mg 11%

Sodium 388mg 16%

Potassium 392mg 11%

Total Carbohydrates 28g 9%

Dietary Fiber 2g 8%

Sugars 6g

Protein 17g 34%

Vitamin A 6.9%

Vitamin C 48.3%

Calcium 11.7%

Iron 9.9%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

 

 

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