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Appeasing the kid in your husband, and you.

If you're one of those couples, where you say "veggies", and he thinks "potatoes"; you say "protein" and he thinks "cheese"; you say "fiber" and he thinks "pizza", then this recipe would make both of you happy. Well..there aren't any potatoes here, but still..it has the flavor profile that most veggie-haters can bare. And admit it, some days, when the summer veggies are still around, but it's a cold rainy day in fall, you want some ooey-gooey cheesy - ricey stuff too!


(Inspired by a Sanjeev Kapoor Recipe)

Here's what I did:

Took two big peppers - one green and one red and slit it into half cross-wise. Remove the seeds and ribs (can keep the stems if you like). Lightly salt and rub with a little bit of olive oil and set aside for about 10 minutes. In the mean time, finely chop one small white onion, one clove of garlic, a small green pepper (I had a good one from the farm), and finely dice one carrot. Heat some olive oil in a cast iron skillet, add the carrots, garlic, onion and peppers and saute for about a minute. Add abt a tea spoon on pav-bhaji masala (Yes, you can completely change the flavors here...but trust me this really works). Make sure you don't use too much masala, this is not pav bhaji, you only want a hint of these spices. saute a few more seconds and then add a small can of tomato sauce. Add salt. Let it cook for a minute or two. Now add about a cup of leftover rice (it must be around half a cup of basmati). Mix and turn off the flame. Now add cheese. I would recommend cheddar, but mine had gone bad (oops), so I ended up using mozzerella and (gasp!) a few slices of american cheese slices. This is not the time to use the good stuff. I had a couple of other "good" cheeses in the fridge. This was really not the time to use those. Now, drain off any water from the peppers, and stuff them with this ooey-gooey cheesy rice. Sprinkle some chopped scallions and more mozerella on top. Now comes the interesting part. After filling the four pepper halves, I had some rice left over. So, in the spirit of one-pot meal, and taking the risk of burning the rice, this is what I did. I spread the remaining rice in the pan evenly, made four holes, and nestled the peppers in them, drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil around the edges and bake in a 400 degrees oven for about 35-40 minutes, till everything is warm, and melty and yummy. Now cross your fingers he's not going to find anything to complain about this one!

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