Easy Weeknight Dinners — The Stuffed Pepper That Tastes Like Being Ready

October is fully here — leaves on the ground in DeKalb, gray skies in the morning, that flat midwestern light. The drive to Chicago in the dark at six AM and back in the dark at four thirty PM. I have been going to bed at nine-thirty, which I have never done in my adult life, because I am awake by five and in the classroom by seven-thirty and by nine-thirty my body is simply finished for the day. I set my phone alarm for five and I am up before it. The kids do this to you. They make you want to be ready.

Therapy with Dr. Perkins on Wednesday — I have kept my biweekly appointments all semester, driving to campus from the school after pickup. We talked about how it feels to be useful in the specific way that I am useful in that classroom. She said "You have been building toward this for two years." I said I know. She said "How does that feel?" I said it feels like the opposite of grief. She said "That might be the most accurate thing you've said in two years." She is not wrong.

Made stuffed peppers this week — four bell peppers (on sale, a dollar fifty for four), filled with a mix of cooked brown rice, ground beef browned with onion and garlic, canned diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning. Topped with shredded cheese, baked covered at 350 for forty-five minutes, uncovered for fifteen more to melt the cheese. Two dollars fifty for the filling, one fifty for the peppers. Four dollars for four stuffed peppers, two of which are dinner and two of which are tomorrow's lunch.

Stuffed peppers feel like something a real adult makes — they look elaborate but they are just rice and meat in a vegetable hat. I ate mine while writing my student teaching log, which I have to submit weekly to Dr. Hennessy. I wrote about M. reading aloud. I wrote about D. navigating the transition. I wrote that I am going to be a good teacher. That last line I deleted and then rewrote and then deleted again and then left it in. It is true. I get to say it now.

I have been making this recipe on repeat since the semester started—it is the kind of dinner that requires almost no decision-making at the end of a day when I have already made a hundred small decisions in a classroom. It fits the budget I have right now, it makes enough for lunch the next day, and it looks like something a person with their life together would make. After the conversation with Dr. Perkins about building toward something for two years, I wanted dinner to feel like evidence of that—and a stuffed pepper, humble as it is, absolutely qualifies.

Easy Weeknight Dinners: Classic Beef and Rice Stuffed Peppers

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 4 medium bell peppers (any color), tops cut off and seeds removed
• 1 lb ground beef (80/20)
• 1 cup cooked brown rice
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce or marinara, for the baking dish

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Spread the tomato sauce across the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish and set aside.
2. Prep the peppers. Slice the tops off each bell pepper and remove seeds and membranes. If the peppers won’t stand upright, trim a thin slice off the bottom to stabilize them. Arrange them open-side up in the prepared baking dish.
3. Brown the beef. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef, onion, and garlic together, breaking up the meat as it cooks, until the beef is no longer pink, about 8–10 minutes. Drain excess fat.
4. Make the filling. Remove the skillet from heat. Stir in the cooked brown rice, drained diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
5. Fill the peppers. Spoon the beef and rice mixture evenly into each pepper, packing it in gently and mounding slightly at the top.
6. Bake covered. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes, until the peppers are tender.
7. Add cheese and finish. Remove foil, top each pepper with a generous handful of shredded cheese, and return to the oven uncovered for 12–15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and beginning to bubble.
8. Rest and serve. Let the peppers rest for 5 minutes before serving. Spoon any pan sauce over the top if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 420 | Protein: 28g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 32g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 620mg