This Post Brought To You By UNCLE BEN’S®.
Portion control and make ahead meals are two of the main strategies I have used to lose weight and sustain my weight loss. Portion control allows me to eat a variety of foods without going overboard and make ahead meals allows me to have healthy foods ready when I need them.
Stuffed bell pepper recipes are a great portion control meal that can easily be made ahead of time. A basic filling usually includes ground meat, rice, tomato sauce, and cheese. However, most recipes are very versatile so you can adapt them with your favorite ingredients.
This time around I stuffed the bell peppers with brown rice, lean turkey Italian sausage, onion, garlic, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Each stuffed pepper is only 320 calories with 20 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber. They were absolutely delicious, full of flavor, and completely satisfying.
When you take a look at these peppers it is easy to think that they require a long time to make and are labor intensive. Well looks can be deceiving because they are actually quite easy to put together – especially when you have some quick cooking rice on hand.
For this recipe I was sent a couple packages of UNCLE BEN’S Brown Whole Grain 90 second Ready Rice. The only thing I needed to do was open the package and stir it in with the sausages and other ingredients as they cooked. Super easy. Typically, I have cooked rice on hand but there are many times I don’t. If you need to make a recipe that requires cooked rice, and you don’t have time to cook up a batch, then this would be a great option. Using the UNCLE BEN’S Ready Rice I had the filling for my stuffed peppers put together within 15 minutes.
UNCLE BEN’S Ready Rice comes in many different varieties. You can see them all here. I prefer the plain brown whole grain rice because then I can use it in many different recipes. However, if you are looking for a new side dish to go with a chicken or beef dinner then check out the other varieties.
This recipe makes a lot of filling and can easily fill 8 medium sized bell peppers. If you have leftover filling then it can be frozen for later. Or if you end up with more stuffed peppers than you can eat they can be frozen either before or after they are cooked. Just thaw in refrigerator overnight and cook or warm up in oven when ready to eat.
If you are interested in more recipes using UNCLE BEN’S Ready Rice then check out their website and facebook page.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 Italian turkey sausage links, casings removed
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon dry oregano
- 1 teaspoon dry basil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 2 (8.8 ounce) packages UNCLE BEN’S Brown Whole Grain Ready Rice (or 4 cups cooked rice)
- 1 15 ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 8 bell peppers (any color)
- 1 cup chicken stock
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In large pan heat up 1 tablespoon of oil then add turkey sausage to pan. Break apart as it cooks. Add onion, garlic, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Cook until sausage is no longer pink.
- Add in rice, tomato sauce, and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Cook until heated through. Remove from heat.
- Cut off the tops from peppers and remove seeds and ribs. Fill each pepper with sausage and rice mixture. Place each stuffed pepper in baking dish. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over top.
- Pour chicken stock in bottom of the pan. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 35 – 40 minutes or until peppers are softened.
These peppers can be made completely, cooled, and then wrap in foil, and frozen. when ready to eat thaw and heat in oven at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated through.
Filling can also be made ahead of time and frozen. When ready to use, thaw, stuff peppers and continue with recipe.
This Post Brought To You By UNCLE BEN’S®.
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Trying this one next week!
have you tried this in the slow cooker? I have seen slow cooker stuffed pepper recipes and was wondering if you had tried it with these and what your time was. They look yummy!
These are good and relatively easy to make. I used regular white rice, chicken sausage, and a little bit of shredded taco cheese on top of mine.
I have tried stuffed peppers in the CP and they were awful. Don’t do it.
Also I cut my peppers in half and grill them on the grill to soften them up, make the meat mixture on the stove and then stuff the peppers, add cheese or sauce and put back on grill in a pan. They are delicious and you don’t heat up the oven. .