What's for Supper: Green Pepper Casserole

Stuffed peppers have been an American classic for years. They are on buffets at restaurants, dinner tables around the country, and many social gathers. The one problem that many people have is the pepper itself. If your family is like mine, they will eat the "stuffing" but leave the pepper shell. It used to make me angry that they were wasting a perfectly good pepper. I came up with a solution that pleased everyone. If you make it into a casserole, you will use less peppers, thus saving money. And anyone who doesn't like the pepper doesn't have to have one on their plate. The recipe is straight forward and very simple.

Start with two large green peppers. Cut them into chunks. You will need 2lbs of hamburger and 1 1/2 cups rice. Chop an onion. You can add salt and pepper to taste. I use two cans of tomato sauce and one and a half cans of water.

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. This will be a little soupy. The main thing to remember is that you are making stuffed peppers without stuffing the pepper. The same great taste is in there. Now the kids can pick out the pepper chunks if they don't like them. If there are other ingredients that you use for your peppers, you can add them. This is a very versatile dish.

I pour the mixture into a baking dish. Set the oven to 300` and forget it. I let mine bake for an hour and a half. I like the casserole to taste as though it has been slow cooked. This is excellent as a crock pot dinner, as well. You can put everything in the crock pot in the morning, set in on low and have a great meal at supper time.

My family likes this dish served with mashed potatoes. I round it off with cole slaw and garlic toast. Our family loves breads of one sort or another with every meal. The whole grains are fast becoming a favorite. I like to think of this dish as winter hearty comfort food.