Freezing Stuffed Peppers ~ photo essay with recipes

Love stuffed peppers?  Make your own!  It is easy.
Here's some of the peppers I picked from my garden a few days ago.


I stuff peppers and freeze them for garden-fresh taste on  blustery, snowy winter days.
Here are some basic steps to prepare peppers for stuffing: wash peppers.  Yeah, I know you already knew that.  Just testing to  make sure you are paying attention.

Run a knife around the top to make a pepper ring. 
Cut around stem.
Remove ring.








Pull out core and seeds.
Stuff pepper.
Place in plastic bag and it's ready for the freezer!








I made two kinds, Italian and Southwestern.  Here are the recipes I used, feel free to change them around to suit your taste.

Basic recipe to fill 6 medium-size Italian peppers~

1 pound lean ground beef, uncooked
1/4 pound Italian sausage, mild or hot, uncooked
26 ounce jar pasta sauce
1 1/2 cups dry, uncooked Minute Rice
Mix all ingredients together in large bowl and stuff peppers.  Add your own favorites like mushrooms, black olives, etc. 



Recipe I used to fill 10 medium-size Southwestern-style peppers~

1 pound lean ground beef, uncooked
1/4 pound pork sausage, uncooked
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups dry, uncooked Minute Rice
15 ounce can Kuner's Southwestern black beans with cumin and chili spices
14.5 ounce can Hunt's petite diced tomatoes with green chiles
14.5 ounce can Hunt's fire roasted diced tomatoes with garlic
11 ounce can crisp niblets corn
Mix all ingredients together in large bowl and stuff peppers. 


Those are leeks in the bag, I used them in the Italian peppers instead of yellow onions.


Cooking instructions~
Thaw frozen peppers in refrigerator 24 hours.
I microwave mine.  Place in microwave-safe dish, no need to add any water.  Cover securely with plastic wrap.  Microwave on HIGH for five to eight minutes per pepper, depending on how big the pepper is and if you like your pepper firm or very soft.
You can also put them in a pan with some water on the stovetop and steam them done.  Or bake them in the oven.



I made a Southwestern pepper for dinner today and topped it with shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese.  YUMMY awesome!  That Southwestern recipe is a keeper for me!

Photos taken with Panasonic DMC-FZ28K