Amanda's Stuffed Peppers

Great recipe - It was an Italian twist on traditional stuffed peppers and a nice change from my usual "rice and beef" version. I used 1 & 1/2 lbs. of lean ground beef and italian style bread crumbs. I left out the mushrooms (personal preference for my husband). After cutting and cleaning the peppers I always boil them for about three minutes to get them a little soft so you don't end up with hard shells at the end of the cooking process. Instead of jarred spaghetti sauce, I used an old favorite "Best Marinara Sauce Yet" from this site and added it to the peppers before they went into the oven. I don't bother with cooking them with the tops. These came out so good. I served them with "Garlic Mashed Potatoes" from this site.

Hubs and I SO enjoyed this! Like eating a big, delicious meatball in a sweet pepper! We're watching carbs where we can so I cut back on the bread crumbs a little. I found I was glad I did, carb watching or not. The full half cup of crumbs would have been a little too much filler for me. I cut back on the Parmesan cheese as well - a little goes a long way. I also found that, just as with meatballs, I had to moisten the mixture up a bit with a little milk. Rather than the Italian seasoning I used fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, fresh oregano and some dried basil, but I have no doubt the Italian seasoning would have been equally as good. I chose to use red, orange and yellow peppers both for their vibrant color as well as their more mellow, sweeter flavor. Everything worked well here, all ingredients perfectly suited to each other. Loved the addition of the mushrooms as well as the mozzarella. I halved the peppers lengthwise and, as I always do with stuffed peppers, blanched them for about three minutes before filling and baking them. Finally, rather than the jarred spaghetti sauce I used my tomato sauce I put up from my garden. If you use the jarred stuff, I'd recommend a simple marinara rather than something heavily seasoned. Normally I'd serve this with mashed potatoes or, considering the Italian slant in this recipe, pasta, but in keeping with our carb watching, I served it with some leftover "Whipped Butternut Squash," recipe also from this site. Excellent.

Definitely a great rendition of the original as I am not a fan of rice. I did make a couple of changes and cooked the ground beef, onions & garlic first to avoid the chance of it not being done (& helped reduce the fat). I then added 1/4 c. italian seasoned bread crumbs & omitted the egg & italian seasoning. I also added the sauce to ground beef when I mixed it w/ the remaining ingredients. Cut the cooking time to 45 mins and it turned out awesome.

These were great, I stuffed both red and green bell peppers since that was what we had. I dont know if I had small peppers, but I ended up needing 7 peppers so I could use up all the filling. Next time I think I would use a leaner hamburger, we had 80/20 on hand the the peppers oozed grease when cut into. They tatsted excellent after being reheated for lunch.

I changed this up a bit, but it was great, and even my picky 5 year old ate it! Use Italian sausage in place of ground beef, and more mushrooms, it's worth it. I sauteed the mushrooms, onion and garlic in EVO before adding the meat and browning (I too fear undercooking). Add the spaghetti sauce, bread crumbs and cheese, heat and filled the peppers. It was great, and I wish I had made more, I would love another!

Really delicious dish. Used turkey instead of beef. A little difficult to determine when meat was thorougly cooked. Not recommended as leftovers. But right out of the oven, it was very, very tasty.

Definitely will make this again. I did add spaghetti sauce to the mixture before I stuffed the peppers. Nice change from the beef and rice mixture.

I converted this recipe to be gluten-free and dairy-free. My entire family loved this dish-even the toddlers! I did add a few steps to the cooking process like blanching the peppers, browning the onions and ground beef, and adding some spaghetti sauce to the mixture before stuffing the peppers. But I also cut down oven time to 35 minutes, which made up for the extra prep time. The peppers were perfect this way. My first time making stuffed peppers, and I love how easy this was. I will be making this often. Thank you Amanda!

my husband had been asking for these for awhile now, I don't care for green peppers so was worried about the taste. These were wonderful. After reading the reviews I did make a few adjustments, boiled the peppers first, cooked the meat first, and I added stewed tomatoes with green chilis for a little bit of spicy. These were a HUGE hit, will definately make againa and again.

My husband thought this would have been really good if the peppers weren't cooked. Also had a hard time getting the meat mixture done. I think next time I make this, I will cook the meat mixture, then stuff in peppers and serve cold.

The concept is good, but as written it's pretty bland. I think that next time I'll use italian sausage instead of beef. I will make this again, but it definitely needs more flavor. And for all those people afraid of it not cooking through, just take it's temperature before serving to make sure it's hot enough. no need to brown the meat first. I don't think it would be as good that way.

Great easy recipe. I use all the differnt colors of peppers too.

These were awesome. Based on the reviews, I decided to use Italian sausage instead of beef and reduced the bread crumbs to 1/3 c. I also used fresh basil, oregano and thyme instead Italian seasoning. The reason for the 4 star rating was the need to spice it up a bit. Baked as described in the directions. They were cooked through and not dry.

Wow, very good. I did pre-cook the peppers for a few minutes in boiling water. Also, based on other reviews, I decreased the bread crumbs (used italian bread crumbs) to 1/3 c. Even though I did decrease the bread crumbs, the mixture was still a little dry, so I added a splash of milk. I also decreased the cheese (used 1/2 c. each) to lighten this up. I didn't bother cooking them with the tops on. I'd definitely make this again with the aforementioned tweaks.

Delicious recipe! Great as is, but the 4 stars is just bc i like a little heat, so i made just a few variations- 1/2 lb italian sausage + 1/4 lb ground turkey instead of the beef, added 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes and 1/4 c diced jalepenos, sprinkle a little cheese on top and yum!!

Tasty weekday meal! My husband really liked these peppers. I used turkey and browned it first. And I used Italian style bread crumbs, omitting the italian seasoning. Mixed the sauce in with the other ingredients, too. This was enough for 6 large peppers! YUM! A nice change from the same old same old! Thanks Amanda!

Very good dish!!! I added about 2 cups or so of the sauce into the meat before I stuffed the peppers. The meat was tender and juicy!! Will make this again!

Thank you for the rice-less stuffed pepper recipe. It was delicious. My husband asked when we could have this again. I used spicy turkey sausage because that is what I had. It really added nice flavor. I also used the "Best Marinara Sauce Yet" recipe from this site, instead of jar sauce. It was great with this recipe.

I made these for dinner last night. I'm not a big stuffed pepper fan, but my daughter went back for seconds. I used small peppers out of the garden. I ended up with about 9 stuffed peppers.

Simple and tasty! I've always cooked my meat prior to stuffing peppers, so this was different for me. I was worried that these would be really greasy because of that, but they weren't at at all. The only changes I made were to omit the onions and I used a blend of shredded Italian cheeses instead of the Parmesan and mozzarella. Thanks! :)

i thought this was yummy. the beef mixture seemed a bit dry as i was mixing it so i threw in some plain yogurt. i think next time i will add some spaghetti sauce directly to the beef and a bit more cheese.

Very Good!

This is a very good recipe and I am happy I found it. The only change I did was using a Chicken Italian sausage in place of the beef. I also poured some of the marinara around the peppers before baking them. Then I warmed the rest of the sauce and served it over the top as the recipe stated. I also used fresh mozzarella cheese which I think gave it some nice moisture since the chicken sausage may have a tendency to get dried out. I used my meat thermometer to check that it was cooked through. Very nice recipe that could be played with in many variations for fun. I might think of adding sliced olives, etc, or other interesting "pizza topping" type of items to this. Thank you for posting this Amanda.

These peppers were very good. A nice change from the rice and beef stuffed peppers. The cheese makes these especially yummy. Will definitely make again. Thanks!

Big hit with the family. I did not want to make my peppers with rice, and this was so delicious! I will definitely be making these again.

I'm not much of a cook... but this recipe was really easy and turned out great! I made it for my fiance for his birthday and he LOVED it!

These were pretty good. I will cook the meat first next time cause there was a ton of grease in the peppers.

A real twisted on a stuffed pepper. Not being a fan of them I tried them and wasn't totally off put by them. My hunny begged me for months to make stuffed peppers. I do feel they needed to cook maybe an extra 30 minutes to be truly done. We didn't have the time so I was forced to serve a bit crunchy. Will try again and bake longer to see if that helps

Very good. I added some sauce to the meat mixture as someone suggested as it seemed dry without it. I also put some of the sauce in the bottom of the dish and set the peppers in it. I didn't put the tops back on as I didn't cut much at all off the top. I cooked them in a covered dish and uncovered after adding the cheeses. My husband and I had one apiece with spaghetti I think splitting one would have been enough. Will be making this again! I like that there wasn't rice in it.

I gave it 4 stars because the meat was a bit bland. Could have used Italian sausage instead of the ground beef and Italian seasoning. Can't figure out why the carb count per serving is so high. Should be much less than that because there is no rice in the mix. Sauce would not have near that, bread crumbs is only 44 per half cup and that's spread throughout the recipe. Can someone explain how a carb count is determined?

There was enough stuffing to fill 7 peppers. And that's with packing them down and there was still a little left over (not enough for a full pepper). And that is the only complaint I have. Luckily, I had gotten extra peppers that were going into a couple of salads I was making. I wish I could give this 6 stars out of 5. My mom, 93 years old, is a very picky eater and she loved them. She is not a fan of bell peppers, but she cleared her plate. Thank you.

Very good recipe. Only changes I made were minor, Red Bell Peppers and portabella mushrooms. The cook time was longer than indicated, but used an oven thermometer to make sure it was done. Will be doing this again as I am not a big rice fan but love stuffed peppers.

We loved these! I used red and yellow peppers and cut them in half. Its a new family favourite!!!

Absolutely amazing! My husband loves these stuffed peppers. I did make them gluten free because I have celiac but the different type of bread crumbs didn't seem to affect the outcome. I will be making these again and again. BTW, we cooked these on the bbq and they turned out great.

Simple and easy to make while very tasty. Definitely will make this again

Very tasty. Be careful of the type of sauce you put over the peppers.

Delish!!! I did not have breadcrumbs so I used crushed up ritz crackers. I omitted the mushrooms and thus was soooo good! Even my picky eaters loved it! Thank you for a new staple for us!

Awesome! Made one change and that was to use Asiago cheese in the meat mixture. And for the cheese mixture on top, I used parmesan and mozzerella cheese, as the recipe calls for. Also, I used my home made spaghetti sauce which I keep in freezer at all times for occasions like this. Fantastic recipe.

The best I have ever had.

It took ,a long time to make . This was The best stuffed peppers , I ever tasted . I would recomended this to everyone .

I added basil leaves to the top of the cheese before serving. Nice flavor boost.

Very good. I added some sauce to the meat mixture as someone suggested as it seemed dry without it. I also put some of the sauce in the bottom of the dish and set the peppers in it. I didn't put the tops back on as I didn't cut much at all off the top. I cooked them in a covered dish and uncovered after adding the cheeses. My husband and I had one apiece with spaghetti I think splitting one would have been enough. Will be making this again! I like that there wasn't rice in it.

Great recipe! Very easy! Delicious!

Loved this. I made my own bread crumbs because I was out. These had great flavor. Will definitely make these again.