Lunch: Bacon and Beef Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs. Ground Beef
4 Slices Thick Cut Bacon
4 Bell Peppers
3 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp. Minced Garlic
2 Tbsp. Sugar Free Ketchup
2 tsp. Oregano
1 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire
1 tsp. Hot Sauce
1 tsp. Liquid Smoke
1/2 tsp. Ground Black Pepper

Instructions

1. Put your 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef inside of a Ziploc bag.
2. Add all of the spices to the mixture, including the oil.
3. Mix all the meat and spices well together, so everything is thoroughly combined.
4. Let the mixture marinate in the fridge for 3 hours.
5. Once you are ready to cook, remove the meat mixture from the fridge. Take out the cores of 4 bell peppers. Be careful with this as you can cut the side of the peppers open and the juice won’t stay inside from the meat.
6. Dice up some bacon into thin strips.
7. Fry the bacon until it is partially cooked – you don’t want it too crispy, but you don’t want it raw either. This is so that the bacon has enough time to cook in the oven while the beef is cooking.
8. Start to boil a pot of water that’s heavily salted. Also, preheat your oven to 350F.
9. Add your peppers to the water, fill the inside of them with water so that they sink to the bottom.
10. Boil the peppers for 3 minutes – you should notice that their skin becomes more vibrant.
11. Once the 3 minutes is up, remove the bell peppers from the boiling water and drain them completely – letting them dry off on some paper towels.
12. While the peppers are cooling, add your bacon and bacon fat to the beef. Mix everything up well so that it’s all combined evenly.
13. Put your bell peppers onto a foiled tray. The foil will help with cleanup because they will leak some of their juices out. Stuff the peppers with the meat mixture until it’s partially coming out of the top. You can place balls of foil in between all the peppers to make them stand upright properly if needed.
14. Put the peppers in your oven for 50 minutes. This will allow the beef to take on a medium-well center.
15. Once you take out the peppers, you can add some cheese to the top or keep them naked to get a char.
16. Add the peppers under the broiler for about 2-3 minutes, or until the cheese is nicely melted. If you leave some of the peppers naked, they should have a nice dark char on the top.
17. Let the peppers cool for about 5 minutes before you serve.