Stuffed Pepper Casserole

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Stuffed peppers. They were something in my house while growing up that my brother, sister, and I either loved or hated. There wasn’t any in between. Seeing as how we lived just across the field from my grandparents, and seeing as how my grandparents always planted a HUGE garden with lots of peppers, and seeing as how they always had extra peppers, my mom often (as in an excessive amount of times a month) served us stuffed peppers whether we liked them or not. My husband grew up calling that a “no thank you helping”. In my family, we half jokingly referred to it as “eat it or starve”. Haha!

My husband will tell you that when we first got married, there were LOTS of meals I just couldn’t eat because my mom was notorious for making huge quantities of things, and then we had to eat it over and over and over-every. single. day.-until it was gone. The poor guy loved spaghetti, but thanks to my mom’s ginormous pots of it, I was burnt out on it. So it was something he rarely got in the beginning years of our marriage. Tragically (not really a tragedy but maybe he felt that way), I felt the same way about stuffed peppers.

One cold, glorious winter day, my feelings about stuffed peppers changed, and I am sure that my husband couldn’t have been happier. I’ll never forget standing in the tiny kitchen of our cramped apartment that evening when he arrived home from work and asked me what smelled so good. I was so proud to reveal that we were having stuffed peppers, and he had to have been secretly rejoicing inside because he’d been asking for this meal for awhile, but I had been too burnt out on it to make it. We both inhaled all four of those peppers that I made for dinner that evening (so much for having an extra pepper for lunch at work the next day), and we decided that stuffed peppers should become a regular item on our monthly menu.

However, the busyness of newly married life soon took over, and it took a lot of effort after a long day at work to cut, cook, stuff, and bake bell peppers every time we wanted stuffed peppers. I knew something had to change. So I set out to figure how how.

I was doing my usual Sunday afternoon grocery shopping at Kroger, and I was excited because they were having their 10 for $10 sale. This meant I could get groceries for the week pretty cheap, and I was excited! Growing up, I never realized just how expensive food could be, so I learned to shop the sales and plan meals around the sales pretty quickly after we got married. As I roamed around Kroger that day, standing in the frozen vegetable section, I saw bags of frozen red and green peppers with onions. I felt an idea begin to take shape, and I excitedly grabbed two bags from the shelf.

I got home and decided to make stuffed peppers for dinner, but this time I was going to make a stuffed pepper casserole. Surely I could save some time by not having to cut, seed, and cook peppers. I was about to find out.

I didn’t have a recipe to go by. I simply used the ingredients that I knew were in stuffed peppers and figured if they could go together inside stuffed peppers well, then it really shouldn’t matter if if the peppers were chopped up in a dish and onions were included. Right? (I know…I know…so creative of me. But why reinvent the wheel?)

Turns out, I was right. That evening we both fell in love with my new version of stuffed peppers, and I secretly rejoiced inside because quite possibly I wouldn’t have to cut and clean peppers as much anymore. Pretty soon, stuffed peppers became something I could eat again but in casserole form. We had this recipe once every couple of months, and the rest, as they say, is history.

How to Make Stuffed Pepper Casserole

• 2 bags of frozen peppers and onion blend (This feeds our family of 4 with some leftovers and gives it a nice pepper flavor.)
• 1 pound of cooked hamburger
• 2 regular sized cans of tomato sauce
• 2 cups of instant rice (We use white rice, but I used to make it with brown rice, and it turned out fine.)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. I always thaw one of the bags of peppers and onions in the microwave and drain it so the casserole isn’t so runny. If you don’t do that, you’ll have to add a small can of tomato paste to the dish. DON’T thaw out both bags though. Your rice needs some liquid to help it cook.

While your one bags of peppers is in the microwave defrosting, cook your hamburger until its no longer pink.

Then open and dump both cans of tomato sauce into a 9X13 inch pan. I don’t bother to grease my pan, and I’ve never had to worry about it sticking. But feel free to grease your pan if you want.

Drain your hamburger, then add it to your tomato sauce.

Then add both bags of peppers and onions.

Add 2 cups of white, uncooked rice.

Stir in a cup of mild shredded cheddar cheese.

Put it in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees 35-45 minutes, or until your rice is no longer hard.

Once it’s done, serve and enjoy.

Well there you have it! A super easy, super filling, stuffed pepper casserole that tastes just like regular stuffed peppers but without all the fuss. What are you waiting on? Go get the ingredients and give it a try yourself!

Stuffed Pepper Casserole

A quick, easy way to make stuffed peppers but in casserole form!

5 from 12 votes

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 55 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 8

Calories 306 kcal

Ingredients

  

• 2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
• 1 lb hamburger, cooked and drained
• 2 20 oz bags of frozen pepper & onion blend
• 2 cups uncooked instant white rice
• 1 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Defrost ONE bag of peppers and onions in the microwave. Drain.
• Cook hamburger until meat is done and drain.
• Open both cans of tomato sauce. Pour into a 9X13 inch pan.
• Add your hamburger to the 9X13 inch pan.
• Add both bags of peppers and onions to your 9×13 pan.
• Add 2 cups of instant white rice to the 9×13 pan.
• Add 1 cup of mild shredded cheddar cheese to the pan.
• Mix and spread out evenly in the pan.
• Bake at 350° 30-45 minutes or until your rice is soft.

Notes

Brown rice can be substituted instead of white rice.

If you don’t defrost and drain one bag of peppers and onions, then you may have to add a bag of tomato sauce to thicken the casserole.

Keyword stuffed pepper casserole

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