At the beginning of every week, I like to have 1-2 cups of rice made to add to my breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This is super helpful for when I make stuffed peppers for lunch because I already have rice made to add to my recipe! I like to make my stuffed peppers with ground beef especially during hard training periods when I want to ensure I am getting enough iron. After all, iron is responsible for transferring oxygen throughout your body and beef contains the easiest to absorb version of iron.

Ingredients:

- 1 pound of ground beef (I use 80/20 because fat= flavor)
- 1/2 cup of cooked rice
- 6 bell peppers
- 1 small can of diced green chili peppers
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 medium white onion, chopped
- 1/2 tbsp cumin
- 1/2 cup of your favorite salsa
- 1/2 cup of your favorite cheese (I used pepper jack)
- 1 tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
+Option: add beans, sub rice for quinoa

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 425F and prepare bell peppers by cutting off their tops.
2. Place pan on medium heat and begin cooking onions. Once onion begins to turn translucent, add ground beef and garlic. Cook until no longer pink, then drain fat.
3. Add green chili peppers, salsa, pepper, and cumin. Then let simmer for 5-8 min.
4. Place peppers upright and drizzle with olive oil. Before stuffing them, add rice and cheese to meat mixture. Stir, then fill peppers with mixture.
5. Bake 20 minutes, then check. For extra browning of peppers, place back in the oven for 5-10 more minutes.
6. Cool before packaging peppers for a week's worth of lunches.