When I was a freshman in college, my roommate made stuffed peppers.  I had never had them before.  For an 18 year old with zero real cooking experience, these seemed pretty advanced- our standard meals consisted of hamburger helper and some variation on pasta.  If I weren’t eating that, I went to a “healthy” fast food place like Pita Pit that accepted my meal plan because we didn’t have a cafeteria.   It’s not so hard to see how one could gain 15 pounds eating that way.  But I digress.  I decided this week to make these all-in-one meals since we were low on produce but had two beautiful yellow and orange peppers laying around.  I substituted ground beef for hot Italian sausage and white for brown rice.  The result was a quick, easy, and relatively balanced meal of protein, carbs, and veggies.

Sausage-Stuffed Peppers

feeds 2

2 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers

1 1/2- 2 cups of cooked rice

2 hot Italian sausages (with removable casings)

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Get the rice started immediately, you’ll want it to be fully cooked before you incorporate it with the other ingredients.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Wash and dry your peppers.  Slice off the top so that it makes a hat of sorts.  Scoop out seeds and clean out the white stuff and your peppers are ready to be stuffed!

Fry up the sausage removed from its casing and try to keep the pieces small.  Once the sausage is fully cooked, add the garlic and onion until soft.  Then, add the rice.  This is your stuffing.  Season the mixture  with salt and pepper and stuff it into the peppers.  Put the tops on the peppers and carefully put them into the oven.  Let them cook for 20 minutes and voila,  you’re done.