Easy Taco Stuffed Bell Peppers for a twist on taco night

Enjoy this delicious twist over the regular taco night dinners. With bell peppers and homemade Mexican rice this meal is a crowd pleaser.

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Are you burned out on Tacos? Look no further then this new twist for Taco Tuesdays.

If you have kids, then you know how important sticking to classic meal they love and will actually eat when you cook it, is. But there comes a time where taco shells just get boring. And you need something better for the taste buds to enjoy. Look no farther then this Taco Stuffed Bell Pepper recipe.

Ingredients you’ll need are

• Ground Meat
• Bell Peppers
• Rice (I use Minute Rice)
• Corn
• Tomato Sauce
• Taco Seasoning (our own recipe)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Cheese
• Refried Beans
• Salsa (Optional)
• Queso Blanco (Optional)

First things first, gather all the ingredients. Get your casserole dish ready with some water in it. Not to much just enough to cover the bottom. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Next let’s wash and slice our bell peppers in half. Gut the insides out. Then place the peppers in the cassrole dish and into the oven for 30 minutes.

Getting our Taco meat cooked and ready

While the peppers are getting soft in the oven, it’s time to get our meat ready to go. I didn’t want to use raw meat because I wanted a quicker cook time for the stuffed bell peppers. If you are cooking with a cast iron skillet, go ahead and get that warming up on the stove top.

Dice up your onions, if you want to save the onion skins to make a veggie broth, go ahead and put them in a baggie in the freezer until you have enough. Once you have your onion and garlic dice, add some oil to the pan and then sauté them up.

Add the ground meat and cook it till it’s done. Add in our homemade Taco Seasoning blend to give it that easy taco flavor without having to go to the store for a taco seasoning packet. Yes Mom, I’m talking about you. I also add half a can of Tomato Sauce to my taco meat at the end of cooking it. Not only does it give more flavor depth but I’m normally cooking Mexican Rice and that recipe uses half a can of Tomato Sauce, so I’m not wasting any ingredients.

Cooking the Mexican Rice

I’m sharing a quick walk through on how I make my Mexican Rice. I’ll have a more detail verison on the blog soon for you as well but for now, here it is.

Add some oil to the small sauce pan. Add about half of cup of your diced onion and garlic first. Sauté them for a few minutes, until your onion is a little soft. Then add two cups of your uncooked rice to the pan along with some of the Taco Seasoning blend, about one tablespoon. Stir and Sauté the rice for a few minutes, then you will add in one cup of the chicken broth and half a can of tomato sauce, let the rice come to a boiling point. Remove from heat, add the lid, and let it sit for 10 minutes to finish. This recipe is best done with Minute Rice for the quick cook time.

Assembling our Taco Stuffed Bell Peppers

Once you have your Taco meat cooked, your rice done, and your peppers prepared, it’s time to assemble everything together. Grab your cooled bell pepper half and add some refried beans to the bottom. Kind of spread it like you would on a sandwich.

Now if you have some picky kids like me, go ahead and scoop some of the taco meat and rice into a bowl, leaving some behind for the kids to eat with normal taco stuff. Next, we are going to add half a can of corn, and about a fourth cup of salsa.

The Salsa is optional, but you can also add some taco sauce instead. Mix up the ingredients and add it to the bell peppers. Top with Cheese and place in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Once done, take it out and serve it up. You can also add some cheese sauce on to as well, I happen to have some Queso Blanco sauce, and that just added more creamy goodness to my plate.

Have Leftovers?

Have leftovers or need to transform it into a new dish? I got you covered! Take the Taco stuffed bell peppers our and chop it up. Get a tortilla and wrap it up. Now you have a taco burrito.

Or you can chop it up, add some lettuce and drizzle some taco sauce on top, and you now have a hardy healthy salad to keep you full for a while.

Want a visual on how to put this together?

I now have a YouTube Channel bringing you along with me as I cook meals. Most of the recipes you see me make on Ivy Lillies Homestead channel will be here as well, so you can get the exact measurements to make it yourself.

Need other dinner ideas? I got you!

Instant Pot Taco Pasta

Sloppy Joe Casserole

Instant pot Porcupine Meatballs

Let me know in the comments if you tried and like this recipe. It’s definitely getting put in the monthly rotation here. And I’d love if you head on over to our YouTube Channel and subscribe there as well.