Stuffed Pepper Mini Meatloaves

I love the filling in stuffed peppers, but I never eat the actual pepper.  This was my way of still having the stuffed pepper flavor, but not wasting the pepper.

Makes about 16 mini meatloaves.

Ingredients

• 2 green bell peppers, diced
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 2 plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 package Zatarain's Dirty Rice (cooked acoording to package directions, without the ground beef)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

1. Cook your rice the night before if possible -- it takes about 30 minutes, so it's nice to not have to do that the night that you plan to bake your mini meatloaves.
2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Throw the peppers, onion, tomatoes, ground beef, and rice in a large bowl and mix until well combined.
4. Spray a regular size muffin pan with cooking spray.
5. Fill each muffin hole with the beef mixture.  Pack it in - they will shrink as they cook.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. Top each with some cheese.
8. Bake for 10 more minutes.
9. Serve with a big green salad  -- I even broke up the loaves and mixed them into my salad.

My review:  This was an idea I had when my peppers didn't look very pretty, and when I remembered that I don't even like the pepper part of stuffed peppers.  I loved this.  It was pretty spicy, and if your family doesn't like much spice, then you may want to just use 2 cups of regular white or brown rice.

Missing in Action

After a crazy summer of living basically alone in the new house, while John was away working to make money for said new house, and I wasn't using my beautiful new kitchen to cook meals for myself....

 
 and then a crazy fall of getting married....

and then honeymooning on Cape Cod

and taking care of our many animals - Lily, Jack & Sawyer, and Boo

and unpacking and decorating to make our house feel like a home

and just dealing with life,

Dragonfly Kitchen was lifeless for months.

But the air is getting cooler now and I'm ready to get my butt back in the kitchen and start testing and creating some yummy recipes to share with all of you.

In the meantime, try this recipe.  It's life changing and delightful and delicious and amazing.  I served it for dinner with friends a few weeks ago, and they raved.  And I'm not gonna lie, I'm dying to make it again.  So worth all of the work.

I'm so glad to be back :)