Since every time a picture of something I've made winds up on facebook, I get swarmed for recipes, I'm just going to start sticking them on here. First up? Today I'm making Mexican Stuffed Peppers in my mom's crock pot. This is one of my improvised recipes, so it's going to be pretty easy. I'm not super creative with food. I'll edit this post with a picture when it's done, seeing as they're kinda cooking now, and you'll have to bear with me on camera quality. But for now, this is what they look like:
See what I mean about poor camera quality? It's a cellphone picture. Don't hate on it.
-5 Bell Peppers (I used 3 green, and 2 red, but any combination will work just fine.)
-1lb Ground Beef
-1Tbs Olive Oil
-1 can black beans (Drained)
-1 can Rotel diced tomatoes w/lime juice and cilantro
-1/2 can creamed corn
-1/4 cup diced red peppers
-3Tbs taco seasoning (more or less to taste)
-5 thin slices colby or sharp cheddar cheese
In a skillet, brown ground beef in olive oil on medium heat. Once cooked, turn to low and add taco seasoning. Stir it around for a few seconds, then add in black beans, Rotel, creamed corn, and red peppers. I got my red peppers off of the top part of my red peppers that I stuffed. Mix up everything in your skillet, and cut the tops off of your peppers, pulling out the cores. With a slotted spoon, scoop out filling and put inside the peppers. Set the peppers inside your crock pot when you're done. This makes enough filling for 5 peppers. If all of them don't fit in your crock pot, you can put the leftover peppers on a baking sheet and bake them in the oven. If you're going to bake them, I'd put them in on 350 for 20 min, then put the cheese on top and bake for an additional 5-10 min. Once you've set them in the crock pot, put the slices of cheese on top of your peppers, and take the juice from cooking the filling and dump it in the crock pot around the peppers so they cook in the filling. Turn crock pot on low for 6 hours.
The main reason I love using the crock pot is so everything gets really nice and tender, and all the flavor is baked in. Not to mention, I know every time exactly when my food is going to be done. I'll update when they're done cooking, but they smell awesome right now, so I'd say this one will be a success.
-Paige
EDIT: From what I'm seeing, the big difference in crock pot versus baking it is not just the flavor being baked in/tenderness of the food overall, but the cheese has melted down into the pepper, so it'll be cheesy everywhere in the crock pot, and cheesy on top when you bake it.