Ground Pork and Cilantro Lime Rice Stuffed Peppers

Through the years, I've made many variations of stuffed peppers.  I've used all sorts of fillings and many different types of peppers.  

Aldi had these gorgeous multi colored bell peppers and I immediately started mentally choosing the ingredients for the filling.

You can use whatever salsa and rice you prefer, but for this recipe these were my choices.

  

I always pre-cook the peppers for about 10-15 minutes before I add the filling.  This way, you're ahead of the game!  Slice the tops off the peppers and set aside.  You'll want to remove the seeds and the membranes from inside the peppers and discard.  Trim the stem from the top part you removed and dice the pepper that remains.  You'll use those bits of goodness in a few minutes.

So now that you have that instruction in your brain, let's go to the ingredients.

You'll need:

5 - 6 medium bell peppers prepped as stated above

Your favorite salsa

1 small yellow onion, chopped

1 T. chopped garlic

3 T. taco sauce

2 - 3 T. fajita seasoning

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 pkg. Cilantro Lime rice, prepared according to package directions

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese

Garnish:  sliced green onions, cilantro, sour cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Spray a baking dish with olive oil spray.

Add 1/3 - 1/2 cup of salsa to the bottom of the prepared baking dish.  Fit the prepared bell peppers on top of the salsa.  You may need to slice a little off the bottoms of the peppers to get them to sit upright all nice and level.

Place into oven while you prep the pork filling and rice.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, begin to brown the ground pork while the rice cooks.

When the pork gets about halfway cooked, add the onions, the diced bell pepper, and the garlic.

Now stir in the taco sauce and the fajita seasoning.  Lower the heat to medium low.

Stir in the beans.

Your cilantro lime rice should be finished by this time.

And it gets stirred into the mixture at this point.  Turn heat to off.

Stir in one cup of the shredded cheese.

Carefully remove the peppers from the oven and divide the filling between the peppers.

Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Cover the baking dish foil (you may want to spray the foil with nonstick spray before covering the peppers so the cheese won't stick).

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the peppers pierce easily with a knife point.

Remove the foil during the last five minutes or so of cooking to brown the cheese.  You may want to turn on the broiler for a few minutes.

I topped ours with the thinly sliced green onions.  

For plating, add a few spoonsful of salsa on the plate.  Carefully place the pepper on top of the salsa.  Enjoy!