Stuffed bell peppers are just perfect for a football Sunday kind of day! Personally I prefer to use red bell peppers, but my husband likes the green ones better — any color works though! And for those other empty-nesters out there, this tasty dish is very easy to cut down to serve just you, perhaps the 2 of you, or maybe 4.
1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1 cup lightly-salted water
1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium Walla Walla sweet onion, finely diced
8 ounces roughly-chopped black olives
8 ounces finely-chopped fresh mushrooms
2 cups marinara sauce, divided
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic with parsley
1/4 teaspoon granulated onion with parsley
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper, or to taste
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
4-6 green (or red, orange, or yellow) bell peppers
1/2 cup freshly-shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup freshly-shredded pepper jack cheese
1/4 cup freshly-chopped Italian parsley
Preheat oven to 350°. Combine rice and water in a small saucepan. Bring just to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently 20 minutes. In a large skillet lightly brown ground beef and onions. Add olives, mushrooms, 1 1/2 cups of the marinara sauce (set aside 1/2 cup of the sauce for later use), Worcestershire sauce, granulated garlic, granulated onion, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes to the skillet. Stir to blend well; bring mixture just to a simmer and cook 4-5 minutes over medium-low heat. While filling simmers, split each bell pepper in half. Remove and discard the seeds. Place pepper halves on a large sheet pan; set aside. Add cooked rice to the meat mixture. Stir to combine well, then spoon generous amounts of the filling into each pepper half. Spoon the remaining marinara sauce over the top of each pepper. Cover the pan loosely with aluminum foil and bake 50 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle each pepper half with cheese. Bake 5-10 minutes more, just until cheese is melted and browned lightly. Garnish pepper halves with parsley and serve hot. — Serves 4-6