Stuffed peppers for Mother's Day brunch

When the only thing remaining on my mother's plate after brunch was most of the stuffed red peppers I made just for her, I found out my mother doesn't really eat peppers. It's good to always learn new things about our loved ones.

For those of you who do eat peppers, stuffed peppers are a great go-to item for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I think a pound of ground meat is more than enough for four peppers, and the leftover stuffing is good to eat plain or on salad greens.


stuffing:

one pound ground meat
one white onion, diced
five cloves garlic, minced
one handful  parsley, chopped
one can diced tomatoes, drain the extra liquid and save it for the topping
spices that sound tasty to you such as oregano

optional 1/4 cup parmesean cheese, 1/2 cup brown rice

shell:
Cut tops of four peppers off to make a hole. It also works to cut them in half so there are 8 pieces total.

topping:
pesto
almond meal

Like many great things, it starts with an onion: cook until a little see through.  Then brown the meat with the onions, add salt and pepper to taste then throw in the garlic and stir it around until you can smell it. Stir in parsley, other

Preheat the oven to 350 (not super important the temp because the only thing the oven is doing is heating the peppers through). Boil a big pot of water and throw the peppers in there while you mix the meat with the parsley, cheese, rice and any seasonings you want to add. Boil for about 3 minutes.

Spoon mixture into peppers after you drain them and get rid of excess moisture. Once stuffed, sprinkle almond meal over the top, then mix some pesto in with the juice from the diced tomatoes and drizzle over the almond meal. Put them in the oven to bake for 20-30 mins. You can also stop at this point and heat them later, when ready to eat. They'd keep pretty well for a few days. Everything is already cooked, so you could probably just microwave these at work for fast food.

I think they only took about 20 minutes to prepare (if your rice is already made), so I wasn't too sad when my mother neglected to eat them. Next time I'm going to experiment with more spices.