Month-of-One-Pan-Meals: Leftovers Sloppy Joe Stuffed Peppers

Welcome to my annual Month-of Recipes on this blog. Go rummaging in the attic here and you’ll find past recipe months for appetizers, chicken, soup, mini-desserts, and more. The way it works is, for each day in February I post a recipe that fits the category. This month is one-pan meals, excluding pizza, most casseroles, and slow cooker recipes.

You’ve had those days, too. “What’s for dinner?” You open the refrigerator, and yeah, chicken is in there thawing, but chicken? Again? So you start scouring the leftovers. Hmm. What could I make with this mess? ***

We had leftover sloppy joe mix from sandwiches earlier in the week, honey-garlic glazed roasted carrots from a chicken dish, roasted kale from a steak dish, and leftover rice from when I made curry, so I put this together for dinner one night. By adding the extra veggies and serving this with a salad, we had a complete, relatively low-carb dinner that baked in one dish.

Leftovers Sloppy Joe Stuffed Peppers (serves 2)

For two peppers you are baking, you will need:

2 large bell peppers

1 cup sloppy joe mixture

1 cup cooked rice

½ cup leftover diced veggies (I had roasted carrots and kale)

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease baking dish.

Cut off tops of peppers and reserve. Clean out seeds and membranes and discard. Coat hands with olive oil and coat the outside of the pepper and the top lid. Place in lightly greased baking dish.

On a small cutting board dice the cooked vegetables. Mix together and spread evenly on the cutting board. Top with sloppy joe mixture and then rice. Knead all together.

Put half of the mixture in each pepper, packing tightly. Top with the lid of the pepper and put in oven.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes or until peppers are softened. Serve immediately.

*** Other leftovers stuffing for peppers: How about my honey-garlic glazed chicken (coming up this month) diced up with rice? Or diced brats with cabbage and mashed potatoes? I always look at my leftovers with an eye to what can I stuff them into (like peppers), top (like baked potatoes), or combine into a casserole. Same food, already cooked, so cooking time is reduced and the leftovers take on a whole new look and taste.

DH’s Rating: 5 Tongues Up

I make stuffed peppers fairly regularly, but with regular ground beef or chicken, most of the time. He liked the flavor that the sloppy joe mix brought. Also, the sweetness of the carrots was another nice flavor layer as well as upping the veggies (Hello, kale!).