Mexican Stuffed Bell Peppers - stuffed with ground beef, black beans, rice, tomatoes, spiced just right with Mexican spices, topped with grated Cheddar and Mozzarella cheese. Baked in a meatless tomato sauce (right from the jar).
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword baked bell peppers, mexican peppers, stuffed bell peppers
Heat the skillet on stove top until hot, add olive oil - it should sizzle. Immediately add ground beef and cook it constantly stirring intill nicely browned and cooked through. Remove from heat. Drain all excess fat. Add 1 teaspoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon cumin, ¼ teaspoon salt to cooked ground beef, stir to combine.
To the same skillet, off heat, add black beans, chopped tomatoes, and cooked rice. Note: make sure to rinse black beans really well and drain. Add more spices: 1 teaspoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon cumin, ¼ teaspoon salt to beef, stir to combine.
Prepare bell peppers for stuffing: cut the tops off, stem and seed them.
Stuff each bell pepper with the filling. Fill the baking dish with marinara spaghetti sauce and up to ⅔ cups of water (don't pour all water at once - just pour enough to make the marinara sauce less dense). Place stuffed bell peppers tightly into prepared baking dish, cavity side up. In my case, I used 2 large bread pans. Top each pepper with both shredded Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese. Sprinkle some cheese over the tomato sauce too. Cover with foil
Bake stuffed bell peppers for 30-40 minutes, until the peppers are tender and the filling is hot. Serve in shallow bowls, with some of tomato sauce on the bottom.