Perfectly Pleasin' Unstuffed Peppers

It's the end of September, the days are getting shorter, and summer is officially over. But the bountiful baskets of garden goodies just keep rolling in, and this week I have a surplus of bright colored bell peppers. These beauties not only taste great, but they also offer amazing health benefits. At just one third the calories of an orange, a bell pepper packs twice as much vitamin C, an antioxidant that gobbles up cell-damaging free radicals and boosts the immune system. So I was happy to pull out this old favorite recipe for perfectly pleasin’ Unstuffed Peppers:

Ingredients:

·        3 cups of sliced bell peppers (any color)

·        1 cup of sliced green onions

·        ½ cup of sliced celery

·        1 tablespoon of olive oil

·        4 ounces of lean ground beef

·        ½ cup of water

·        ¼ teaspoon of dried thyme

·        ¼ teaspoon of salt

·        2 cups of cooked rice

Sauté the peppers, onions, and celery in the oil until the vegetables soften. In another pan, crumble the beef and brown it. Add the beef to the pepper mixture, then stir in the water, thyme, and salt. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes, until the water evaporates. Stir in the rice and serve. Enjoy!