I’ve done it! I’ve really done it! I made a meal that costs more than 5 smackers!!! I wasn’t sure that was possible anymore!
I saw this recipe in a Taste of Home Slow Cooker Recipe book. I just HAD to try it. I knew if I didn’t get the green peppers on sale the meal would be way over. I was right! Even if they had been on sale, I think I’d still have gone over! Oh well. Can y’all forgive me this once???!!!
Price Update: in Texas, our green peppers are about 49¢ right now, so don’t let price stop you from trying this recipe especially if they are on sale!
Slow Cooker Stuffed Green Peppers
Adapted from: Taste of Home Slow Cooker Recipe Book
Yield – 4 servings
Preparation Time – 20 minutes
Cooking Time – 20 minutes on stove; 4-6 hours in slow cooker
Ingredients
- 4 large green peppers ($3.96)
- 1/2 cup rice, uncooked ($.10)
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1/2 lb ground beef, cooked ($.75)
- 1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles ($.37)
- 1/2 cup frozen organic corn ($.25)
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese ($.37) Do not add if GFCFSF!
- 3 medium sweet potatoes ($1.39)
Directions
- Cook rice in water by bringing water to a boil. Add the rice and return to boil. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer 20 minutes.
- Add can of Rotel, frozen corn and cooked ground beef to the saucepan with the rice. Mix well.
- Cut the tops off of each bell pepper and remove the seeds and stem.
- Scoop rice and meat mixture into each bell pepper. Place bell peppers into the slow cooker. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours.
- About 15 minutes before serving, add shredded cheese to the tops of each pepper. Let cheese melt.
- Slit sweet potatoes with knife or vent with fork. Bake sweet potatoes at 350 for 1 hour in baking dish with 1/4 inch water. Cover with foil. Remove and let cool about 10 minutes. Peel skins off of the potato and mash. Serve with cinnamon and butter if you like. We eat them “plain”.
- Serve stuffed bell peppers with a side of mashed sweet potatoes.
Cost $7.19 (or $5.19 with updated pepper price!)
They look delicious!! I LOVE stuffed peppers!!
Well, now I’m gonna have to encourage you to garden – or at least buy a pepper plant or two, and a couple of pots, lol.
That way you can have inexpensive bell peppers every summer.
Of course, buying peppers in January, you’re gonna pay a premium, lol.
Hey, don’t even worry about it! They look delicious…and although $5 dinners are a great goal, $7.19 is not bad for a dinner for 4 people. So don’t get discouraged. Just be happy that you are providing colorful, delicious, nutritious food for your family!
I agree this would be a great summer time dish especially if you grow your own green peppers. It is ok that you went over because it looks like it was delicious!
did you know that you can cut off the tops of peppers, clean out seeds and ribs and freeze them when they’re in season? Then you can fill them while frozen to bake later. I also pop the stems (discard stems) off the cut-off tops and freeze those to chop later as needed. They look like frozen flat green doughnuts, but one or two of them will be just about right to add to pasta sauce.
I still have some in my freezer from last summer’s farm markets.
I hope this helps someone later, or if you run across a bargain.
Yum!! I made stuffed green peppers last week! Check out my blog to see ’em if you want!
Sounds delicious!
I have always wanted to try stuffed peppers and this recipe looks really easy. Thank you for posting the recipe for it. And yes, we can forgive you for going over budget. Everyone deserves to splurge every once in awhile and this recipe looks yummy. I’m sure it was worth the money.
Those look so yummy! (Even if you did go over budget!) I was just telling my husband tonight how so few people in my family like green peppers but that my grandma used to like to make stuffed ones. Funny that it’s the same night you posted this. 🙂
And I love that you used RoTel. I’m going to try it that way! (I think I’m becoming addicted to that stuff!)
Thanks!
I love stuffed peppers, these look great!!
Do you have any 99 cent stores where you live ? The one near me seems to always have bell peppers – green, red and sometimes yellow or orange peppers 2 to a pack for 99 cents!
Wow! The green peppers here are 2/$1!
Sounds yummy though =] I like a small can of tomato sauce in mine.
I love stuffed peppers! It was the first meal I learned to make.
And I love the 99 Cent Only stores, who always have terrific deals on peppers, even if you have to use/freeze them quickly!
We love stuffed peppers in my home but it can be pricy buying enough peppers. With 4 young boys in the house we end up with a lot of left overs making each child a stuffed pepper. What I do to fix both problems is to cut the peppers in half from top to bottom and then stuff each half seperatly. At least2 servings per pepper (the 2 youngest share a half of a pepper.)
I have also made a stovetop version where I sliced the peppers into thick rings and pack the meat mixture inside each ring. Place them in pan and surround with spaghettti sauce, simmer til the peppers are tender.
My MIL makes something really similar to this – she just calls if Bell Pepper Stuffing. I think you could make it more price friendly by using 2 green green peppers and chopping them up, adding them to the ground beef and then adding all the other ingredients as well. My family would just eat the stuffing and not touch the bell peppers if I actually stuffed them.
Of course will we will forgive you! Only once in all this time is excellent…and besides I feel your pain. Peppers here range from $1.99-2.99/pound. I’ve been buying chopped frozen peppers because they are cheaper per pound, but I know this wouldn’t work for this recipe.
These look very good!! Even at 7.00 that’s not bad for a meal.
It happens to everyone at some time or another. I love stuffed peppers, but I don’t make them except in summer when peppers are cheap.
Have you ever tried cutting up the green peppers and baking at 350 for about 30 minutes covered. Thats what I do. And you don’t use as money green peppers and it cost less. And its so much easier to just eat the green peppers too!
I’ve been wanting to try these too, but bell peppers are EXPENSIVE! I noticed that they are on sale this week 2/$1 so maybe fate is telling me to stuff some peppers….
My mother used to use the “stuffing” and roll it in leaves of cabbage and cover it with tomato sauce (or more likely, canned tomato soup) for a yummy stuffed cabbage. Throw some carrots in the sauce and mmmmm…
Andrea
Hey Erin!!
I never thought to add corn to stuffed peppers, what a great idea! I am loving your website, keep up the good & fun work! I hope you had a great time at the show in New York, I hope your hair stayed fabulous for the shoot at Kroger’s 🙂
Lauren Marquardt
Andrea ^^^ Canned tomato sauce is not the same thing as tomato soup. Throwing some tomato puree and corn syrup on some cabbage does not sound very delightful.
And the recipe sounded great, except for the sweet potatoes! You could have cut those out of the recipe and been just $.80 over budget.
You should definitely look into growing your own vegetables at home, I grow most of my herbs from home and am looking into growing tomatoes and green peppers next year. It saves a lot of money and is extremely gratifying to grow, cook and eat your own veggies and herbs.
But I understand, $5 dinners are hard to come by from the store. Lovely site, excellent job and I definitely look forward to reading more recipes.
thanks for recipe – was planning on making stuffed peppers this week so will use your recipe as we have many tomatoes and green peppers ready to harvest – will use fresh tomatoes – and dress them up to be like your canned tomatoes with chilies for even lower cost.
suggestion – did you know you can make potatoes in the crockpot? i do it often in the summer. just prepare as though for baking in oven and put in crockpot on low all day. house stays cooler and you get a yummy baked potato for toppings/mashing/whatever.
Welll…for the mom who needs it a bit faster n hassle free..take your raw beef, rice (soaked for a day before hand,) tomatoes, and diced ONION; mash together. Stuff in gutteted peppers. Place in LARGE pot with lid, cover peppers with tomatoes and fill pot half way up peppers with water. Cover n simmer for about 45 min or until beef is cooked brown. Add the cheese n corn if u want.
You are so awesome! I do not believe I’ve read through something like that before.
So great to find someone with some genuine thoughts on this
issue. Really.. many thanks for starting this up.
This website is something that’s needed on the web, someone with a little originality!