Southwestern Stuffed Red Bell Peppers with an Attitude

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef

• 1 cup chopped onion

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce

• ½ cup chopped green chiles

• 1 cup cooked rice

• 1/8 teaspoon cumin powder

• ½ teaspoon ground thyme

• 1/4 teaspoon ground savory

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 5 large red bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, roasted over flames, skins removed

• 5 small wedges of jalapeño Monterey jack cheese

Instructions

Brown the beef in a large skillet. Add the onion and the garlic and saute for 2 minutes. Drain or blot off excess grease. Add one can of the tomato sauce, green chiles, rice, cumin, thyme, savory, salt, and pepper to the sauteed meat mixture and mix well.

Stuff the meat mixture into the bell peppers. Place the stuffed peppers in a shallow glass baking pan, so they are all stacked against each other and won't fall over. Pour the second can of tomato sauce into the pan. Add enough water to bring the liquid depth up to ½ inch. Tent the peppers with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven, basting the tops of the peppers with the tomato sauce base.

Add a wedge of the cheese into the center of each pepper when they are almost finished baking.