Stuffed Green Peppers - ☺

I had the pleasure of eating excellent stuffed green peppers made by none other than my daughter, Patty. They were so good I asked for her recipe so I could include it in Food Nirvana. She graciously provided it. See below. I guarantee you will enjoy this dish.

Ingredients:

Enough green peppers, halved lengthwise and cleaned, to cover the bottom of a 12" by 18" oval roasting pan

1 cup of uncooked rice

2 cups of water

3 lbs. of Ground beef

2 eggs

½ cup. of Ragu® Light spaghetti sauce (Use Ragu® Light or other sugarless sauce to avoid unwanted sweetness) to be added while making the ground beef mixture.

1, Two pound 13 ounce bottle of Ragu® Light spaghetti sauce (less the ½ cup listed above)

1 Tbsp. of Salt

1 tsp. of pepper (or more)

1 Tbsp. of Onion powder

1 tsp. of garlic salt

1 Tbsp. of Dried Parsley

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Use the rice and the water and follow package directions to cook it. It should make two cups of cooked rice. Parboiled rice usually takes 15 minutes of simmering on low heat, covered, and regular uncooked rice takes about 22 minutes, covered. Some brown rices have a 45 minute cooking time.

Halve and clean the green peppers and place them open side up on the bottom of the 12" by 18" oval roasting pan.

Mix all the ingredients except the bottle of Ragu® Light sauce together by hand until they are thoroughly mixed.

Fill the peppers with the ground beef mixture evenly.

Cover the peppers with the jar of Ragu-Light spaghetti sauce (minus the ½ cup used in the ground beef mixture)

Hint: Pour ½ jar of the spaghetti sauce over the peppers, then add ½ cup of water to the rest of the sauce in the jar, put the lid on tightly and shake the jar. Then pour that slightly diluted sauce over the peppers and you will get virtually all of the sauce from the jar.

After the peppers are covered evenly, cover the roasting pan with a lid and bake at 350ºF for 1½ hours.

Serve hot.