Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers

            Have you ever tried a recipe that didn’t turn out very well the first time, but you felt like it had potential so you gave it another go?  That is what this recipe has been for me.  I love the idea of doing stuffed peppers in the crock pot, however, I have good and not-so-good things to share about this recipe.  My first experience with this recipe didn’t go as planned.  All of the ingredients were in the crock—I started my timer and about one hour into the 8-hour cooking time, our power went out.  There was no storm or terrible weather—it just randomly went out.  The power stayed off for about an hour before it came back on so I wasn’t sure if my results were accurate and felt like I needed to give this recipe another chance.  I found it here: Recipe

            Although as it turns out, the power outage had nothing to do with some of the problems I had the first time, because they were still an issue this time.  Before I continue, some of you might be thinking, ‘if this wasn’t a complete success why are you sharing it?’ and to that I would say—first because I’m just honest like that, and secondly because I think this could be even better with a little tweaking.  Lastly, because I’ve seen this all over Pinterest and thought some folks might appreciate an honest opinion.  Back to the review:

            First, how to put your peppers together:  Prep your peppers by washing them, then cutting off the tops, and removing the seeds/ribs.  You’ll need a 5-6 quart crock pot for this recipe. 
            You can use whatever color bell peppers you prefer.  I already had three red ones on hand, and bought a three pack that had a red, yellow, and orange, but green or any combination will work.  You'll want at least 6 peppers.

Prepare your filling:

I used my stand mixer for this—makes it a breeze to put together.  Mix until well incorporated, but not too long.  Stuff your prepared peppers with filling and place in crock pot:

Now, we come to one of my problems with the recipe.  It makes WAY too much filling for 6 peppers.  Not all of my peppers were huge this time, but the first time I did it, they were all very large, and I still had too much filling.  Here is how much filling I had left over:

I didn't know if it would stick together well enough to form meatballs, so off the top of my head, I decided to form some masses of filling that would hold up my peppers and keep them from floating around when I put in the liquid.  I put one large chunk in the center, and one on each side:

          The recipe says to cook these for 8 hours on low.  The first time I did these, one of my issues was that the peppers seemed to be mush... they completely fell apart when I tried to get them out and I had filling swimming around in liquid.  I thought it might be due to the one hour delay during my power outage the first time.  Turns out, I think they just cook too long or maybe this is just the texture you get when you do them in the crock pot.  Personally, I like my peppers to have a little bite, so I would like to try not cooking them as long (as long as the filling is done of course).  The recipe calls for vegetable stock, which I used the first time.  It was okay, but I used beef stock this time, and liked it better.  Back to the filling issue--the recipe calls for 1.5 lbs of ground beef--I think 1 lb is probably the better choice because it appears that I had about a half pound left over.  Or, if I had two or three extra peppers, I may have been able to stuff them all in my crock (the one I used was either 6 or 6.5 quarts, FYI).

Over all, I did enjoy the filling.  It was a little bland for me, so I plan to add some more seasoning next time as well.  The recipe needs to be adjusted a little for my taste, but I still think its a great recipe and plan to continue to use it in my rotation.  Hope you enjoy!  Blessings!