Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers

I trust we are all done with turkey for at least a few weeks, right? My public service announcement for today is that if you still have leftovers in your fridge, they are now bad.  I am not making this up nor is it based on my numerous food issues. It has been five days.  Throw them out please and thank you!

Speaking of my numerous food issues, I really wanted to try to make it through November without discussing them. We see how that worked though, right? It didn't. In fact it left me struggling with finding something to say. It was kind of like back in my therapy days and my therapist told me that I needed to focus on not making jokes about things that weren't funny for a whole week. It was a very quiet week. In fact, it made me realize that my therapist might need more therapy than me because clearly he was a sad man with no sense of humor.

Today my issue is not so much a food issue as it is an appliance issue. I would like to discuss two polar opposites in the appliance world: the microwave and the slow cooker. First, I will start with the microwave. I have always been leery of them. When I was a very young girl, my parents bought a microwave. It was the 70s so they weren't the every day thing that they are now. I think they might have been a new invention. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd google that to find out, but nah. Anyway, my little friend from next door came over and I wanted to show her the new microwave. I still remember what I made her - it was a quesadilla of sorts.  Good ol' Kraft American on a corn tortilla with a little Blue Bonnet on it. She wouldn't eat it. She said her mom said that microwaves ruin your jeans. I told her my jeans (boys' Toughskins with reinforced knees if you must know) would be just fine. It wasn't until we took the argument to our much smarter big sisters and learned that they meant genes - not jeans. The Big Sister Contingent informed us that the microwave might make our kids weird. I was a girl in boys' Toughskins who wore a sad clown shirt every day - how weird could they be? But still it scared me. I tried not to walk near it, even when it was off. To this day, I am pretty sure I can feel the microwave rays warbling my vision. I get the magic of the microwave, I do. Sometimes you need things quickly. I get it, I really do. But still it scares me a little.

Then there is the whole slow cooker thing. I understand the science behind it. What I don't understand is things like scrambled eggs that you can do in five minutes on the stove, WHY would you do them in 6 hours in the slow cooker? Who the heck has 6 HOURS to make breakfast? Do you actually get up at 2 in the morning to start these magical scrambled eggs? Why would you take the crock part out and make a complicated foil handle criss cross contraption and then find a casserole dish that fits inside to bake a cornbread when you could just, I don't know, throw the darn thing in the oven and call it good?  Don't get me wrong. I love my slow cooker as much as the next person but seriously?

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. If I sold shirts that said that here on my blog, would you buy them? Just a side note....

Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers
Recipe by Rival Crock Pot
1 pkg Spanish rice mix (about 7 ozs)
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced onion
1 egg, beaten
4 medium bell peppers (I strongly recommend red, yellow or orange - they taste much better than green!)
2 cans (14 oz ea) stewed tomatoes
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 cup of water

1. Set aside seasoning packet from rice. Combine the rice, beef, celery, onion and egg in large bowl. Divide meat mixture evenly among pepper halves.
2. Pour tomatoes and juice into slow cooker and then place filled peppers on top of tomatoes.
3. Combine tomato soup, water and seasoning from rice mix in a small bowl. Pour over peppers. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours.

Okay so now reading this recipe, this is something that could easily be done on the stove or in the oven so the whole just because you can doesn't mean you should may not apply to this particular recipe. Why do you listen to me anyway? I rarely know what I'm talking about.

Enjoy!