Stuffed Green Peppers

A "cleaning out my fridge meal" and nothing more.  I found these beautiful, cavernous green peppers on sale at Schnuck's for 2/$1. They were screaming "stuff me".

So I did.

Saturday morning was the Ground Hog Day Brunch and I took about 2 lbs of sausage.  I had about a half pound of crumbled sausage left and I decided to put it to use here.

Did you know that breakfast sausage is incredibly fattening?  I KNOW!  Who'da thunk it?  Oh well.  There are many, many ways to make stuffed peppers and I've tried a number of recipes over the years, but for some reason, my tastes tend to gravitate toward just-a-little-bit-spicy and let-the-peppers-shine.  So, I try not to overdo the spices in this dish.  Also, since I tend to make it once a year when it's cold and wet and crappy outside and when it seems spring will never come again.  This is comfort food, plain and simple.  You just want something that makes you warm and happy.  And has sausage in it.

Ingredients:
6 large bell peppers
2.5 cups calrose rice (uncooked)
1/2 lb. cooked breakfast sausage
1 lb ground beef, browned and drained
1 zucchini, diced
2 small cans or 1 large can original Rotel tomatoes and peppers
1 jar spaghetti sauce

Cook rice according to package instructions.  In my case, I used 2.5 cups of rice in 4 cups water.  When cooked, set aside to cool.  Cut the tops off the green peppers and remove the seeds and membrane inside.  Remove the stem from the top, but retain the top.  Place the rice in a large mixing bowl.  Add the ground beef, sausage, zucchini, and Rotel (do not drain) to the rice and mix well.  Scoop the rice mixture into the green peppers.  Stuff them well and place the top of the pepper on top of the rice mixture.  Place all peppers in a baking dish.  Pour the spaghetti sauce into the dish and bake the peppers in a 325 degree oven 35-40 minutes.  The peppers should be cooked but still firm.

Servings: 6
Kcals: 516
Fat: 27g
Carbs: 44g  Dietary fiber: 5g
Protein 24g
Weight Watchers PointsPlus: 16

Yowza.  That's a lotta points for one bell pepper.  So when I made it, I left out the ground beef.  Because really.  You thought I was gonna leave out sausage?  Hahahahahaha!  Anyway, sans ground beef, we're down to 13 PointsPlus, but 3 points is a big savings.  What the hell.  They don't call it comfort food for nothing.

Post script:  You can't eat a whole one of these peppers.  I ate 3/4 of one and thought I was going to have to lay down for a bit.  A half of one is plenty for an adult's main meal.  This cheap little meal is going to last me  LONG time!