{Stuffed Pepper Soup}

Trying recipes and working on becoming dairy and gluten free has been pretty easy for me (so far)…thanks to my mom, Lara Bars, and coconut coffee creamer.  My mom has been helping me research recipes that I could easily do.  We also talked about some recipes that we already do that would easily be converted to gluten free.

For example, our Slow Cooker Chicken and Pork Tacos that I wrote about here, originally called for a pack of taco seasoning.  Instead of using the taco seasoning pack (which a lot of times has gluten), we opted to make our own on Tuesday when we made our tacos in the slow cooker.

1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. chili powder
crushed red pepper to taste
salt and pepper to taste

We also made a Stuffed Pepper Soup which I thought it was the bomb-diggity, so I thought I would share the recipe we used!

Here it is:

2 lbs. ground beef (we used sirloin)
3 chopped onions
1 bag of frozen chopped green peppers (we got ours from Kroger, but you could always use fresh – 2 1/2 cups of chopped green peppers)
1 (28 oz) can of diced tomatoes
1 (12 oz) can of tomato paste
1/2 box of beef stock (make sure it’s gluten free if you need it to be)
2 cups of water
2 cups of brown rice (pre-cooked – we used a mixture of short grain and long grain)
salt and pepper to taste

Before you prepare the soup, cook your rice.  I do not use the quick cooking kinds of rice.  I usually find them too mushy.  Although, I have had great luck with the frozen brown rice at Trader’s Joes.  I usually buy the dry rice brands from Kroger and Whole Foods which both take about 2 cups of water for 1 cup of uncooked rice with 40 minutes of cooking time.

Brown your meat in the stock pot.  Add the diced onions and half of the green peppers.  Cook veggies until they are kind of soft.  Add the can of diced tomatoes, the can of tomato paste, half of the box of beef broth, and the 2 cups of water.  Mix thoroughly to get the tomato paste all mixed through.  Add desired amounts of salt and pepper.  Once the soup heats through, add the rest of the green peppers and the rice.  Simmer for 30-40  minutes and enjoy hot!