Unstuffed Peppers

My main man made a request for stuffed peppers this week when I told him I was in a recipe inspiration rut.  I'm happy to oblige such requests as he almost never requests something that I don't like and I do like stuffed peppers - sort of.  What I find is that stuffed peppers are good in theory and composition, but not so delightful when it comes to actual consumption.  They're just plain hard to eat!  But I do love the filling and the mixture of flavors so tonight I decided to improvise.

I started with this recipe from AllRecipes.com that I've used for quite a while.  After experimenting with a few, I decided I liked the addition of the cheese and the meat to rice ratio, as well as the sauce/soup on top.  Tonight however, I got a little crazy and instead of stuffing those lovely green veggies I chopped them up and dumped them into the meat mixture with the tomatoes and the rice.  Then I put the whole thing in a casserole dish and covered it with the soup and baked as directed.  It was super yummo!  My only change in the future would likely be to stir the soup into the mixture instead since that's really how it ends up when you serve it anyhow.

The verdict was smiles all around.  It was pronounced to have superb leftover potential by my lunchbox-toting sweetie and my 1-year-old had two munchkin sized helpings.  And my fork and I both left the table happy about the absence of a knife.  All is well.