Today’s recipe of Stuffed Green Peppers did not go exactly as planned- probably because I missed the all-too important step of getting the ingredients before starting cooking. Or maybe it was a poor recipe choice to begin with- or perhaps I failed in choosing green peppers instead of the more flavorful orange and red peppers- I really don’t know what happened, but I wasn’t happy with the end result.

I decided to cook Stuffed Peppers, which sound a lot better than they tasted and used a Betty Crocker Cookbook. I started off sauteing garlic and onions in olive oil before adding hamburger mixed with pork meat. So far, so good. All of the vegetables were organic and the beef was supposedly grain-fed, so I felt like I was on a some-what healthy path with my meal despite the high number of calories.

 After  finally making the extra effort to look at the recipe, I realized that I needed cheese and tomato sauce, neither of which I had on hand. I ran to the store to get the items and after a two-second deliberation, chose the cheaper Mozarella because I want to keep my food costs as low as possible.

When I returned back home, I mixed up the tomato sauce and cheese in with the meat and of course, did a quick taste- I was less than impressed with the mixture- it tasted bland. Because I’m a relative newbie in the kitchen, I don’t have the background to know which ingredients to add to make my food taste better- I fumbled around the cupboards and selected some chipolte-flavored Tobasco and added a little.

I had forgotten to boil the peppers, so had to find a large pan (I finally learned what a Dutch oven is) and boiled the peppers for five minutes, then stuffed them with my rather bland mixture. After baking them at 350, I got them out and prepared for the worst. It wasn’t as bad as I had expected, but they could have been better. With the exception of adding garlic and Tobasco, I followed the recipe pretty well, so I am going to absolve myself of all of the responsibility for my disappointing food.

I like Stuffed Peppers, but need a better recipe for them. What do you think I should have done differently? If you have any tasty recipes that you would like me to prepare and report about, please let me know. Likewise, if you have any of your own cooking disasters to report, please share them here.

HERE is someone else’s more successful experience with cooking peppers.