Summer Stuffed Peppers -- The Best Ordinary Dinner We Ever Had

April. The azaleas. I drove that stretch of highway four times this week and slowed down every time. Tyler now adjusts his expectations for my arrival time during azalea season without being asked. This is what accommodation looks like. Not grand gestures. Adjusting the timeline for flowers.

Destiny is doing so well. She is almost eight and she is reading above grade level and she has opinions about books that she shares with the authority of a critic. She told me this week that her teacher read the class a book that was good but not as good as another book and she explained why with three specific reasons. I said that was a complete literary argument. She said yes, she knew. She had written it down.

I am pregnant. I found out Thursday. I took three tests because one did not feel certain enough and two felt like it might be an error and three was when I believed it. Tyler came home from the shop and I was in the kitchen and I said: I need to show you something. I showed him the tests. He looked at them for a moment and then he picked me up off the floor. He lifted me completely off the floor and held me there for a long moment. When he put me down he looked very carefully composed and then was not composed at all for about forty-five seconds and then was composed again. I said: it is real. He said: yes, it is real. We ate dinner at the kitchen table and talked about everything and nothing and it was the best ordinary dinner we have ever had.

That dinner had to be something real —something that sat on the table and looked like Tuesday even though everything had changed. I’d made stuffed peppers a dozen times before, and that’s exactly why I made them that night: because the recipe didn’t need my full attention, and I needed my full attention on Tyler, on Destiny upstairs reading her book with her three-point literary arguments, on the fact that there was going to be another person in this house. Bright colors on the plate, something warm from the oven, a meal that says: we live here, we eat here, we are a family here —and now we are becoming something more.

Summer Stuffed Peppers

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 40 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 4 large bell peppers (assorted colors), tops cut off and seeds removed
• 1 lb lean ground beef or ground turkey
• 1 cup cooked long-grain white rice
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained, juice reserved
• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 1/2 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese, divided
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Fresh parsley or cilantro, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish and arrange the hollowed peppers upright inside it.
2. Cook the filling. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook 3–4 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add ground beef, breaking it up with a spoon, and cook until no longer pink, about 6–8 minutes. Drain excess fat.
3. Season and combine. Stir in diced tomatoes, corn, black beans, cooked rice, chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper. Add 2–3 tablespoons of the reserved tomato juice if the mixture looks dry. Stir in 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese and remove from heat.
4. Fill the peppers. Spoon the filling generously into each bell pepper, pressing lightly to pack. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup cheese evenly over the tops.
5. Bake. Pour 1/4 cup water into the bottom of the baking dish (this steams the peppers as they bake). Cover tightly with foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 8–10 minutes until peppers are tender and cheese is bubbly and lightly golden.
6. Rest and serve. Let the peppers stand 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh parsley or cilantro and serve directly from the baking dish.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 410 | Protein: 31g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 38g | Fiber: 6g | Sodium: 540mg