We're about to have a heat wave and I don't want to be cooking then. So I
did it now. Tuna casserole. Two pans of unstuffed peppers. One with
cheese. One without. Heavy on the peppers, onions and ground beef. Easy
on the rice. Big batch of the roasted potato salad. Also bought some small
French rolls for sandwiches, some cottage cheese and plenty of raw veggies.
My fridge is full!

On 6/1/2014 2:08 AM, Julie Bove wrote:
> We're about to have a heat wave and I don't want to be cooking then. So
> I did it now. Tuna casserole. Two pans of unstuffed peppers. One with
> cheese. One without. Heavy on the peppers, onions and ground beef.
> Easy on the rice. Big batch of the roasted potato salad. Also bought
> some small French rolls for sandwiches, some cottage cheese and plenty
> of raw veggies. My fridge is full!

What does it mean to have an "unstuffed pepper", yet with cheese?

"Travis McGee" > wrote in message
...
> On 6/1/2014 2:08 AM, Julie Bove wrote:
>> We're about to have a heat wave and I don't want to be cooking then. So
>> I did it now. Tuna casserole. Two pans of unstuffed peppers. One with
>> cheese. One without. Heavy on the peppers, onions and ground beef.
>> Easy on the rice. Big batch of the roasted potato salad. Also bought
>> some small French rolls for sandwiches, some cottage cheese and plenty
>> of raw veggies. My fridge is full!
>
> What does it mean to have an "unstuffed pepper", yet with cheese?

You know how you would make the typical stuffed pepper? Well, I guess there
are different ways to stuff them but these would be big bells baked with
rice and meat inside, Italian seasonings and normally some Italian cheese.
Smothered in red sauce. If I make those, I am the only one who eats the
pepper. Husband and daughter will (assuming that I make them all with no
cheese) immediately scoop out the insides but give me their peppers. So...
Why should I take the time to stuff them? They actually like the taste
that the pepper gives so I saw an unstuffed pepper recipe and tried them.

Basically you use the same ingredients but cut your pepper into large
chunks. Put it all in a casserole and bake. If you look up recipes online,
you'll see a lot that involve either dried onion soup, cream of something or
other soup, instant rice or something else I don't normally use. The recipe
I used called for brown rice. I was going to use that but in cleaning out
the fridge, remembered the white rice I had cooked for my daughter when she
had stomach issues a few days prior. So I used that.

I had a 6 pack of bells that I bought at Costco but they didn't get eaten
due to both husband and daughter being ill. I prefer green bells myself for
this type of recipe but daughter prefers red so I bought the mixed pack of
red, yellow and orange. Also used a large white onion cut into large
pieces, 3 cans of tomato sauce (15 oz.), 2 pounds of ground beef, salt,
pepper, garlic and oregano. Added a few red pepper flakes at the last
minute.

I began by browning the ground beef, then when it was almost done, I added
the veggies to the beef and cooked them for about another 6 minutes. They
will bake more in the oven but you basically only heat it through since
everything is already cooked. I then added not quite 2 cups of cooked white
rice and the everything but the cheese. I divided this into 2 baking
dishes. His had a mix of Italian cheeses stirred through and a good layer
of mozzarella on top. I can't eat real cheese so this is why I did them
this way.

Daughter was less than thrilled with the prospect of this meal so I offered
her the tuna casserole. A meal that I love but can't eat and her dad
doesn't like. I had found a can of unsalted peas in the cupboard. They
were a mistake so I had been looking for something to put them in. Only way
to get away with unsalted veggies, IMO is to put them into something else
that does have salt in it. That one was easy peasy. Just cream of mushroom
soup (one of the few uses that I have for it), a couple of pouches of tuna
and a bag of cooked egg noodles. If I were to be eating it, this is not
necessarily my preferred recipe although I do like it. This is the way that
daughter loves it though so... Cheap meal and she will have enough for
several days and I might also put some in the freezer for later.

I have come up with all sorts of ways to do stuffed peppers though. FIL
grew Italianelle...aka Cubanelle...aka frying peppers. These are like a
bell but pointier and thinner skinned but similar taste to green ones.
Typically fried with scrambled eggs and garlic and served on Italian bread.
But he always had a bumper crop so when he did, I would stuff them. He
would never eat rice though. So I got creative. They are good with
Mexican/Southwestern type things like corn and black beans and that type of
cheese and an Enchilada type sauce over. Or mashed potatoes with cheese or
even your bread type stuffing. Can use a tomato sauce on these or cover
well and use no sauce. Not sure that the stuffing or potato ones would do
well unstuffed but you could certainly do the bean and corn one like that.

On Sun, 01 Jun 2014 02:10:55 -0400, Travis McGee
> wrote:

> On 6/1/2014 2:08 AM, Julie Bove wrote:
> > We're about to have a heat wave and I don't want to be cooking then. So
> > I did it now. Tuna casserole. Two pans of unstuffed peppers. One with
> > cheese. One without. Heavy on the peppers, onions and ground beef.
> > Easy on the rice. Big batch of the roasted potato salad. Also bought
> > some small French rolls for sandwiches, some cottage cheese and plenty
> > of raw veggies. My fridge is full!
>
> What does it mean to have an "unstuffed pepper", yet with cheese?

You could call it "deconstructed". Here are a couple of versions

http://www.mantitlement.com/recipes/unstuffed-peppers/
http://www.lifeasaplate.com/2011/06/...uffed-peppers/


--

Good Food.
Good Friends.
Good Memories.

"sf" > wrote in message
...
> On Sun, 01 Jun 2014 02:10:55 -0400, Travis McGee
> > wrote:
>
>> On 6/1/2014 2:08 AM, Julie Bove wrote:
>> > We're about to have a heat wave and I don't want to be cooking then.
>> > So
>> > I did it now. Tuna casserole. Two pans of unstuffed peppers. One
>> > with
>> > cheese. One without. Heavy on the peppers, onions and ground beef.
>> > Easy on the rice. Big batch of the roasted potato salad. Also bought
>> > some small French rolls for sandwiches, some cottage cheese and plenty
>> > of raw veggies. My fridge is full!
>>
>> What does it mean to have an "unstuffed pepper", yet with cheese?
>
> You could call it "deconstructed". Here are a couple of versions
>
> http://www.mantitlement.com/recipes/unstuffed-peppers/
> http://www.lifeasaplate.com/2011/06/...uffed-peppers/

Those are two variations I haven't seen. Husband would love the meatball
one! Actually I'll bet it would also work with some cut up Italian
sausages. I have some in the freezer to use up. Thanks!

Julie Bove wrote:
>
> You know how you would make the typical stuffed pepper? Well, I guess there
> are different ways to stuff them but these would be big bells baked with
> rice and meat inside, Italian seasonings and normally some Italian cheese.
> Smothered in red sauce. If I make those, I am the only one who eats the
> pepper. Husband and daughter will (assuming that I make them all with no
> cheese) immediately scoop out the insides but give me their peppers. So...
> Why should I take the time to stuff them? They actually like the taste
> that the pepper gives so I saw an unstuffed pepper recipe and tried them.
>
> Basically you use the same ingredients but cut your pepper into large
> chunks. Put it all in a casserole and bake.

That sounds fine to me, Julie. Same ingredients and same taste.


> I had a 6 pack of bells that I bought at Costco but they didn't get eaten
> due to both husband and daughter being ill.

I certainly hope you just didn't throw them out. You could have cooked
a nice meal with them and frozen portions.

Almost every food in the known universe, you have a problem with. And
you wonder why people pick
on you here? heheh

On Saturday, May 31, 2014 11:08:09 PM UTC-7, Julie Bove wrote:
> We're about to have a heat wave and I don't want to be cooking then. So I
>
> did it now. Tuna casserole. Two pans of unstuffed peppers. One with
>
> cheese. One without. Heavy on the peppers, onions and ground beef. Easy
>
> on the rice. Big batch of the roasted potato salad. Also bought some small
>
> French rolls for sandwiches, some cottage cheese and plenty of raw veggies.
>
> My fridge is full!

And Angela is going to starve....

"Gary" > wrote in message ...
> Julie Bove wrote:
>>
>> You know how you would make the typical stuffed pepper? Well, I guess
>> there
>> are different ways to stuff them but these would be big bells baked with
>> rice and meat inside, Italian seasonings and normally some Italian
>> cheese.
>> Smothered in red sauce. If I make those, I am the only one who eats the
>> pepper. Husband and daughter will (assuming that I make them all with no
>> cheese) immediately scoop out the insides but give me their peppers.
>> So...
>> Why should I take the time to stuff them? They actually like the
>> taste
>> that the pepper gives so I saw an unstuffed pepper recipe and tried them.
>>
>> Basically you use the same ingredients but cut your pepper into large
>> chunks. Put it all in a casserole and bake.
>
> That sounds fine to me, Julie. Same ingredients and same taste.
>
>
>> I had a 6 pack of bells that I bought at Costco but they didn't get eaten
>> due to both husband and daughter being ill.
>
> I certainly hope you just didn't throw them out. You could have cooked
> a nice meal with them and frozen portions.
>
> Almost every food in the known universe, you have a problem with. And
> you wonder why people pick
> on you here? heheh

I made the unstuffed peppers with them. Husband liked them but I didn't. I
debated then used the McCormick oregano. There is just something about it
that I don't like. Reminds me of mildew somehow.

"Chemo" > wrote in message
...
> On Saturday, May 31, 2014 11:08:09 PM UTC-7, Julie Bove wrote:
>> We're about to have a heat wave and I don't want to be cooking then. So
>> I
>>
>> did it now. Tuna casserole. Two pans of unstuffed peppers. One with
>>
>> cheese. One without. Heavy on the peppers, onions and ground beef.
>> Easy
>>
>> on the rice. Big batch of the roasted potato salad. Also bought some
>> small
>>
>> French rolls for sandwiches, some cottage cheese and plenty of raw
>> veggies.
>>
>> My fridge is full!
>
> And Angela is going to starve....

Nope. Casserole is all gone. I think she was a little peeved that I gave
some to her dad. He doesn't normally like it but we got in late and he
appeared to be hungry so I offered and he took it.

On Fri, 6 Jun 2014 15:35:03 -0700, "Julie Bove"
> wrote:

>"Chemo" > wrote in message
...
>> On Saturday, May 31, 2014 11:08:09 PM UTC-7, Julie Bove wrote:
>>>
>>> My fridge is full!
>>
>> And Angela is going to starve....
>
>Nope. Casserole is all gone. I think she was a little peeved that I gave
>some to her dad. He doesn't normally like it but we got in late and he
>appeared to be hungry so I offered and he took it.

What a magnanimous gesture on his part.