I love to cook with items I have on hand. There are times I’ll buy something from Kroger that is on sale and without a second thought, put it in the freezer for when such a time might come. Well, today was that day for a pound of ground pork. Typically, if I have ground pork, it’s to make meatballs of some sort, as a secondary meat. For some reason, a previous shopping trip brought on some Stoplight Peppers (You know, those packages with Red, Yellow and Orange Bell Peppers?) to the refrigerator where they have been waiting to be prepared in some meal. I don’t know why, but stuffed peppers sounded good today; however, I really didn’t have anything needed to make the traditional stuffed peppers that my wife makes.

And so it begins, my trek to find enough ingredients to make a decent meal. I began going through the pantry, refrigerator drawers, spices and any other place I might have hidden any number of special ingredients. A couple of fresh vine ripe tomatoes here, some fresh ground pork there, those aforementioned peppers, a can of tomato soup, some Italian spices, etc. You get the picture, I scrounged around the kitchen, and in the end, found enough ingredients to make it interesting. How interesting? With the lack of a canned tomato sauce, I had to make my own… and got to use my immersion blender!

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 small onion
• 1 pkg Stoplight Peppers (3 total)
• 16 ounce shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 pkgs Knorr Selects Rustic Rice and Beans
• 6 cups of water
• 2 vine ripe tomatoes
• 12 ounce can condensed tomato soup
• 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves garlic (crushed or minced)
• Italian spices: rosemary, oregano, parsley flakes, basil, and thyme (a tablespoon each)
• Kosher salt
• crushed black pepper
• olive oil

Directions

Tomato Sauce

1. Slice and dice the tomatoes into chunks.
2. In a large bowl, add the ripe tomatoes, can of condensed soup, 1 cup of water, Italian spice mix, garlic, Worcestershire sauce and about 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil.
3. Using an immersion blender, blend the ingredients into a sauce. The longer you blend, the smoother the sauce. Once blended to the consistency you want, add salt and pepper to taste. Don’t be surprised if it takes quite a bit as the fresh tomatoes will need the salt.
4. Set aside two cups of the sauce and keep the remaining sauce in the bowl.

Rice Mixture

1. Add two packages of the rice mix into quart pan.
2. Add five cups of water and bring the mixture to a boil and stir.
3. Lower temperature to a high simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes until the liquid has been cooked out.

Meat Mixture

1. In a skillet over medium heat, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil.
2. Dice the onion and add it to the skillet.
3.  Add the pork and cook until evenly browned.

Stuffed Peppers

1. Remove and discard the tops, seeds, and membranes of the bell peppers. Slice in half lengthwise. Arrange peppers in a greased glass 13×9 baking dish with the hollowed sides facing upward.
2. Add the meat and rice mixtures into the sauce bowl. Mix well. If necessary, break up the meat into smaller pieces so that there are no chunks.
3. Spoon an equal amount of the mixture into each hollowed pepper. Place a generous amount of cheese over each pepper.
4. Pour the remaining tomato sauce you set aside earlier over the stuffed peppers.
5. Bake the stuffed peppers in an oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.