We been craving stuffed bell peppers for some time. However, we haven't prepared them because of their high carb count, which is mainly in the rice. I, then, had an AHA moment! Why not substitute our Cheesy Smashed Cauliflower for the rice. I wondered how they would taste.
Well.....they tasted incredible!! We couldn't even tell that the rice was absent. In fact, the cauliflower tasted exactly like rice. What a wonderful substitution!
Preparation time for this recipe was approximately 30 minutes and actual cooking time, an additional 1 hour and 15 minutes. Since this recipe required more time than others, we decided to prepare this meal when we had plenty of cooking time. However, the end results were well worth the time.
When you head to the grocery store, these are the ingredients you'll need to purchase:
- 4 Large Green Bell Peppers
- 1/2 tsp. Baking Splenda
- 1/4 tsp. Minced Garlic
- 1 lb. Ground Beef
- 1 Tbsp. Minced Onion
- 2 8oz. Cans of Tomato Sauce
- 2 4 oz. Cans of Mushrooms
- 1 1/2 Cups of Shredded Cheese
- 1 Cup of Cheesy Smashed Cauliflower (Click for recipe)
We'll begin this week's recipe by cutting the tops off our Green Peppers, as if we were going to make lids for them.
Next, we will clean out the seeds, membranes, and will discard.
We'll then rinse our peppers to make certain, the inside is clean of any remaining residue.
Now's time to slightly soften our peppers, so that they will be tender at the end of our cooking process. We'll do that by placing our peppers into a deep pot, filling with water until the peppers are completely submerged.
Next, we'll cover and boil our peppers for about 8 minutes.
When finished boiling, we'll drain our peppers and will stand them up in a baking dish, sprayed with cooking spray.
And then, we'll place our peppers aside for later, while preheating our oven to 350F degrees.
The ideal situation would have our peppers standing up in a small pan, so that they would not fall, during the baking process. However, we seemed to have misplaced our smaller baking pan. If that happens, not to worry. Any pan will do.
Next, we'll cook our Ground Beef and onions on medium heat, until our meat has fully browned.
After draining the grease from our ground beef, we'll add 1/3 cup of our shredded cheese, our Cheesy Smashed Cauliflower, garlic, 1 cup of our tomato sauce, Baking Splenda, and mushrooms.
We'll then, stir, cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until pipping hot.
We are now ready to stuff our peppers with our hamburger mixture.
We'll, then spoon our mixture into our bell peppers until we have completely filled each one.
After all peppers have been fully stuffed, we'll pour the remainder of our sauce over the peppers.
Next, we'll cover our dish with foil and will bake for 45 minutes on 350F degrees.
After our baking has been completed, we'll remove our peppers from the oven and will remove the foil.
As you can see, our peppers have slightly fallen. Had we used a smaller baking dish, they most likely would have been standing upright. However, no need to fret.
We'll sprinkle the remainder of our shredded cheese over our peppers and will, once again, place in the oven for about 5 minutes or until our cheese has melted.
Now, it's time to remove our peppers from the oven and serve our deliciousness. I wish we had smell-vision, because our peppers smell absolutely fantastic!!!
Our peppers are tender, as are its cheesy contents.
This is definitely a hearty meal, with very low carbs, yet not lacking flavor.
Since we had Cheesy Smashed Cauliflower remaining, we enjoyed our pepper with our faux rice.
Our meal lasted us for 2 meals. We hope you've our ingenious dinner as much as we have. Hope to see you again next week!
