Stuffed Peppers, Carrots, and Potatoes

I made this meal without really using any recipe. Go me! It included stuffed peppers with ground beef and rice, steamed carrots, and blue cheese potatoes.

The carrots were pretty much as basic you can get. I had leftover full carrots to use up from the chicken noodle soup I made recently. I just peeled them, cut them into small sized pieces, put them in my Pampered Chef Micro-Cooker, added a splash of water, and microwaved them on the "steam" setting for about a minute and a half. Super healthy, and one of John's favorite things to eat! (I really need to make them more often.)

These potatoes were pretty easy, too (although not nearly as healthy). I threw them in a pot, added water to cover them by about 2 inches, and then boiled them on the stove until soft. (I've always heard that you should put the potatoes in the cold water and let them cook from cold to boiling, rather than boiling the water first and then putting them in. I'm not sure why, but I've always followed that.)

When the potatoes were as tender as I wanted, I drained them into a strainer, put the potatoes back into the empty hot pan (with the burner turned off), and then added a couple tablespoons of butter and a handful of blue cheese to them. I stirred them around until the butter was melted and the cheese was creamy. 

Then I transferred them to a serving bowl and cut them up a bit to make them easier to eat. (They were already pretty tiny little things, though.)

How I made the stuffed peppers:

1. Brown about a pound of ground beef, along with a diced yellow onion.
2. Transfer cooked meat to a bowl, and add 2 cups of spaghetti sauce, 2 cups of instant rice, and lots of crushed red pepper flakes. This time, I also added diced celery (leftover from my soup), and shredded carrots (leftover from my soup as well).
3. Cut off the tops of the bell peppers and empty them of ribs and seeds. 
4. Brush the outside of the peppers with olive oil. 
5. Stuff the filling into the peppers, and then pour an extra cup of spaghetti sauce over them. 
6. Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees, covered.
7. Remove cover and top with mozzarella cheese, then bake for about 5 more minutes.

Here's what the stuffed peppers looked like as I took them out of the oven. I always seem to enjoy the filling a lot more than the peppers themselves, so I only cooked 3 peppers, but lots of extra filling (as seen on the left side). There is certainly enough filling in this recipe for about 6 peppers if you'd like.

Two of the peppers, hugging each other for support.

This meal was pretty delightful. The only thing I need to change is the peppers themselves. I need to figure out how to get them to be more "roasted" and soft. In this recipe, they turn out pretty crunchy. I think next time I'll try to pre-roast them in the oven for a while before stuffing them. 

If you have any tips on how to achieve this, let me know!