Nancy has a website full of incredible recipes over at SkinnyKitchen.com. This recipe was originally featured there.
These stuffed peppers are absolutely delicious. When you dive in you’ll notice that they taste just like a cheeseburger. I’ve made them healthier by using extra lean ground beef, brown rice and lite cheese. Such a satisfying dinner, you’ll be stuffed! Each serving has 349 calories, 12 grams of fat and 8 Weight Watchers SmartPoints.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 40-45 minutes
Ingredients
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 pound extra lean ground beef (96%), see shopping tip
1 cup onions, diced
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon mustard (I used a spicy brown mustard)
1 tablespoon pickle relish
⅓ cup tomato sauce, can or jarred
3 tablespoons water
1 cup lite cheddar cheese, mozzarella or blend, shredded (I used Trader’s lite Mexican blend)
4 large red bell peppers, yellow or orange (each about 3½ inches high and 3½ inches wide)
Instructions
1. Cook rice and set aside. Cut off the tops of 4 bell peppers about 1-inch down from top. Clean out seeds and membranes. Throw away the tops.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. In a large nonstick pan, brown ground beef and onions. Season beef with a little salt and pepper. Be sure to break up ground beef into small pieces as it cooks.
3. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, tomato sauce and 3 tablespoons water. Mix well. Stir in ¾ cup shredded cheese and cooked rice. Mix well and continue to cook until heated through. Add 1-2 more tablespoons of water, if getting a little dry. Remove from heat.
5. Stuff each bell pepper with ground beef mixture, top each stuffed pepper with 1 tablespoon shredded cheese. Place each in a 9-inch baking dish. Pour 1 cup water in bottom of baking dish. Cover dish with foil and bake for 40-45 minutes. If peppers are not soft enough, cook about 5 minutes more.
6. Once cooked, cooled and wrapped, they freeze great!
Makes 4 servings. Each serving, 1 stuffed pepper
Shopping Tip
Most supermarkets sell extra lean ground beef. I used the 96% lean ground beef from Trader Joe’s. You could use ground turkey, if preferred.
Weight Watchers SmartPoints 8
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 9
Weight Watchers (old points) 7
SKINNY FACTS: for 1 stuffed pepper
349 calories, 12g fat, 5g sat. fat, 78mg chol, 32g prot, 33g carbs, 619mg sod, 9g sugar
FACTS: for SmartPoints
300 calories, 5g sat. fat, 3g sugar, 31g protein
Nancy Fox
Nancy Fox is no stranger to the food industry. She founded Mrs. Beasley's, a gift-basket company featuring baskets full of decadent baked goods. It became the "hot" gift to give among the Hollywood community. Nancy later opened 2 low fat restaurants called Nancy’s Healthy Kitchen. Her line of reduced-fat cookies were featured on "Oprah's Favorites" gift show. Continuing her passion for cooking and baking Nancy created a recipe website called Skinny Kitchen. Each week she shares skinny recipes, cooking and kitchen tips, food finds and the healthy benefits of many recipes. There’s also nutritional facts and Weight Watchers POINTS on each recipe.
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Waltham Forest
Saturday 30th of April 2016
Great recipe! Actually I've eaten something similar in Greece. The difference is they put some tomato on top to cover seal the rice/meat mixture. Anyways, however you make this is still an exquisite meal. :)
nancy@skinnykitchen.com
Thursday 28th of April 2016
I hope everyone enjoys this as much as my husband and I did. Thanks so much for sharing! With my very best wishes, Nancy