Sunday, September 12, 2010

Freezing Home Made Stuffed Bell Peppers.

I spent several hours in the kitchen today making five meals worth of stuffed bell peppers and then freezing them.  I was able to get some stuffed bell peppers on sale, so I stocked up.  I was also able to get five pounds of rice for a great price.  So what better to do with them then make stuffed bell peppers.
Yes, from start to finish, since I only have two pots large enough to cook the bell peppers in, and to make that much rice in, I had to do things in stages.
1.   I got the peppers blanched and semi-softened in boiling salted water, then I drained and put them aside to cool. 
2.  Next in one of the large pots I made the rice.
3.   In the other pot I started browning frozen hamburger, two large packages worth.  So browning hamburger that way takes awhile because you do it at lower heat until all the hamburger is unthawed and broken up, then you can up the heat a bit. 
4.  Then I added into the hamburger two large chopped onions. 
5.  Once the hamburger onion mixture is done and drained, I'm able to add it into the large pot of rice.  Thankfully this pot is big enough to pour everything in, then it takes a bit of work and a large long spoon to mix it all up thoroughly.  
6.  I stuff the cooled bell peppers with the mixture.  I then let them cool.  
7.  Now I wrap each individual bell pepper up with plastic wrap trying to have no trapped air. Then I put a meals worth in a gallon sized freezer bag, get out the air and zip close.  I put the cooking instructions on the bag, in case someone else ends up cooking them instead of me. 
8.  When I do go to cook them I will first add tomato sauce to the top of each bell pepper.
9.  To cook, remove from freezer bag, and unwrap each bell pepper.  Place in a baking dish that has about an inch of water in the bottom of the pan.  Bake in a 350F degree preheated oven for about 1 hour and 10 minutes if starting with the frozen bell pepper.  If you have let them unthaw in the refrigerator you can cut down the time probably to 45 minutes.  Ovens vary and so do tastes, so basically you want to get the bell pepper warmed all the way through.  Some people do not add the tomato sauce on top until the last 15 minutes of cooking, because they like their tomato sauce to still be runny/saucy.  We like ours to make kind of like a tomato crust on top of the bell pepper so we usually put in on sooner.
10. These bell peppers can be changed up by the type of rice you use or any seasonings you may want to add to the rice.  Some people add in taco seasoning when cooking the rice.  Some others add spaghetti sauce in place of half of the water when making the rice.  It depends on your preferences.
We tend to like the standard Bell Peppers around here, so I mostly, but not always stick to that recipe.
Now I have 5 meals in my freezer that are easy to cook. 
11.  Just add a side salad and the meal is done.

2 comments:

  1. This sounds delicious! And if the right pots and utensils are available pretty easy.
    Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing this! I am often curious about freezing meals and we love stuffed peppers over hear. Next time I find bell peppers on sale, I'm stocking up!

    ReplyDelete