Crockpot Stuffed Green Peppers (Whole 30)

Recipes for the crockpot are coming along slowly but they are coming. The crockpot just isn’t my preferred method of cooking so I just don’t think of using it. When I do, it takes a lot of experimentation to find what works and what doesn’t. Right now, my biggest problem is that to work well my 2 quart crockpot needs to be at least 1/2 but no more than 2/3 full. I need 4 to 6 cups of food for it to work well. My recipes aren’t usually for that much food.

The timing of the food is also an issue. I use my crockpot overnight. I need recipes that take a minimum of 5 hours to cook through but not overcook. I am still trying to find those recipes.

One crockpot recipe I have tried and liked was the stuffed green pepper recipe from The Family Freezer. I chose stuffed green peppers because I had leftover pasta sauce and ground beef that needed to be used before I went home for Christmas. This recipe is a good example of the timing issues I am having with crockpot recipes. The recipe said to cook from frozen for 6 to 8 hours on low. My peppers were cooked until the pepper was tender and the meat cooked through in 3 hours on low in my crockpot. So the first time you make any crockpot recipe check it at halfway through the cooking time.

Stuffed Green Peppers

• Difficulty: Easy
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Adapted From The Family Freezer

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 large onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 small bell peppers, any color, tops cut off and guts cleaned out

2 cups pasta sauce, 2 tablespoons reserved. I used Simply Ragu, you can make your own sauce.

In a small bowl, combine the ground beef, onion, garlic and the reserved 2 tablespoons of pasta. Divide the meat mixture in to 2 equal parts and stuff each half into a bell pepper. Add oil to the bottom of the crockpot. Place the stuffed peppers on the bottom of the crockpot and pour the remaining sauce over the peppers. Cook on low 6 to 8 hours.

Flashback Friday Italian Tomato Sauce

 Italian Tomato Sauce is one of the first recipes I adapted for A Solitary Feast and one of my favorites of the 440 recipes I have adapted.  I use it for spaghetti sauce, lasagna and any where a cooked tomato sauce is called for.

Italian Tomato Sauce

• Difficulty: Easy
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Adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook

1 TBS olive oil

1 cup onion, chopped

½ medium green bell pepper, chopped

1 tsp basil

½ tsp oregano

½ tsp thyme

1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes

1 ½ TBS honey, use an equal amount of white or brown sugar to make the sauce vegan

3 TBS Tomato paste

Salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a small sauce pan or skillet. Add onion, bell pepper, herbs and salt. Sauté over medium heat until the onion is very soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, honey and black pepper. Use a spoon to break up the tomatoes into bite sized pieces. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes. 

Italian Tomato Sauce What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking #3

The most common excuse I hear for Not cooking from scratch is I don’t have the time. What if I told you, in the time it takes to boil noodles and heat a store bought spaghetti sauce, you could have a homemade spaghetti sauce? Would you try it?

I prefer this as a meatless sauce as Mollie Katzen wrote it but if you want to, you can brown 8 oz of ground beef with the onion and spices, make sure you drain the fat from the ground beef before you add the tomatoes and other remaining ingredients. Use the sauce on top of pasta or anywhere a tomato sauce is called for.

Italian Tomato Sauce

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Ingredients
1 TBS olive oil
1 cup onion, chopped
½ medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp basil
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp thyme
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 ½ TBS honey, use an equal amount of white or brown sugar to make the sauce vegan
3 TBS Tomato paste
Salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a small sauce pan or skillet. Add onion, bell pepper, herbs and salt. Sauté over medium heat until the onion is very soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, honey and black pepper. Use a spoon to break up the tomatoes into bite sized pieces. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes.

Adapted from Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook