Stuffed Peppers with Feta

Buying fresh vegetables is expensive, especially peppers. Green peppers are usually oh-kay...normal price at $2.99/lbs. Sometimes our local loblaws sell old peppers at 50%...some dont look too bad. They're usually starting to get wrinkly. They come a pbag of 4-5 and Kev and I always look for them. And sometimes we buy them even if we don't need peppers in the dishes on our weekly menu (every weekend, my homework is to make up the week's menu and grocery list). Last week, we looked in the fridge and found 4 peppers looking quite sad...they were in their last day or two. So we decided to make stuffed peppers. I've made stuffed peppers before. I can't remember what recipe I used, possibly from Kraft, and it was not very good. So I looked up a recipe on allrecipes.com and found a vegetarian stuffed pepper with feta cheese. Since Kevin likes to have meat, i added meat to the recipe.



1 cup water
1/2 cup uncooked Arborio rice
2 green bell peppers, halved and seeded
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
ground beef

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil. Stir in the rice. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Place the peppers cut-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Roast 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until tender and skin starts to brown.
4. While the peppers are roasting, heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the ground beef, onions, basil, Mrs Dash, salt, and pepper in oil for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato, and cook for 5 minutes. Spoon in the cooked rice, and stir until heated through.
5. Remove from heat, mix in the feta cheese, and spoon the mixture into the pepper halves.
   Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.
   

These were yummy. I would put more feta next time. I love it. For a cheaper version, you can also use any other cheese you have...like mozza or cheddar. I think i'd like this even more if it was red or yellow peppers. We each had one whole stuffed pepper and were quite full. We liked it so much we made it again about a week later, with 50% off red peppers! Yums!