Dinner, Garden Style

Wow, it's been hot! Days like today make me thankful for working in the a/c. When it's hot outside I have a terrible time coming up with meal ideas. Who wants to cook when it's 110 outside? Not me! But eventually I get hungry and you really shouldn't eat ice cream for dinner, at least not more than once a week ;)

The heat has been very hard on our garden, and I was able to rescue some peppers, so I decided to stuff them for dinner with what I had on hand. I didn't know what the family would think of them, and right away Carl noticed something was missing.

'Honey, there is no meat on our table' ~ Carl
'I know, I was wondering if you would notice' ~ Me, looking sheepish
'Well the peppers are good, but it feels wrong to not have meat on the table.' ~ Carl
'Well, um, what should we do?' ~ Me
'If we have some bologna in the fridge we could put it on the table' ~ Carl
'Seriously, you think bologna would go with this meal? ~ Me
'No but I would feel better just having it on the table.' ~ Carl

Stuffed Peppers
5-6 bell peppers
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can tomato soup
garlic powder to taste
1 cup shredded cheese
Cook brown rice according the package directions, and add tomatoes, black beans, tomato soup, garlic powder, and 1/2 the shredded cheese. Cut the tops off your peppers and clean the insides out, use the tops by dicing them and adding to the rice mixture, cook the rice mixture on the stovetop on low, heating everything through. Bring a large pot of water to boil and boil the peppers for 4-5 minutes, take out and drain then and stuff with the rice mixture, I ended up with extra rice, but that's OK since my kids would eat the rice but not out of a pepper. Place the peppers inside a muffin pan, cover with cheese at bake 15-20 minutes at 350.


Serve with:

I would so LOVE to tell you this came from our garden, but our wonder dog Willie is determined to eat all our watermelons, lucky for him he has redeeming traits, otherwise I would be kicking him to the curb. Thankfully the watermelons at G&W have been delish.

What do you cook when it's hot outside?