Recipe of the Week

Everyone in my family really likes this. I love it because it is easy to prepare and is comfort food for those days when you feel like something simple yet delicious. I don't know if anyone else craves tomatoes like I do when they are pregnant but this fits the bill for me. All of my pregnancies pretty much all I can stand to eat is tuna on crackers, tomato anything as long as it has a more light fresh tomato taste rather than a long simmered condensed taste, buffalo chicken anything and fruit. This recipe if the result of three recipes combined: skinnytaste's stuffed bell pepper soup(the general idea of it), my mother-in-laws lasagna sauce(sauce base), and my mother's cabbage rolls(seasonings). Actually four recipes combined because my mothers cabbage roll stuffing calls for a combination of ground beef and pork sausage and I just used the beef and added the seasonings from my favorite pork sausage to the tomato base. So credit goes to a number of people. Besides just eating it plain my husband and I really like scooping it up with multi-grain chips. You could substitute the bell peppers for chopped cabbage and have deconstructed cabbage rolls.

Deconstructed Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cooked rice

1 lb 95% lean ground beef

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1 cup finely diced onion

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 cans (14.5 oz each) cans petite diced tomatoes

6 Oz. can tomato paste

1-2 cups reduced sodium, fat-free chicken broth (depending on how thick you want it)

1 tsp dried marjoram

1 tsp. sage leaves (if ground sage maybe 1/4 tsp. or to taste)

1 Tbsp. parsley

½ tsp. ground fennel seeds (optional)

1 tsp. apple cider or red wine vinegar

2 tsp. salt

fresh pepper to taste

Directions:

In a medium size pot, brown ground meat on high heat and season with salt. Drain fat if any, reduce heat to medium-low, then add onions and garlic. Cook about 5 minutes on low heat.Add tomatoes (you can blend these if your family does not like tomato chunks), tomato sauce, tomato paste, chicken broth, marjoram, sage, fennel, vinegar and pepper to taste. Simmer uncovered on medium-low heat for 20 minutes then stir in chopped bell peppers. Serve about 1 1/3 cups of soup in each bowl and top with 3-4 Tbsp cooked rice and stir in.