I love meals that are like a one-stop shop. This Unstuffed Pepper Skillet meal has all your major food groups in one dish. It’s cheesy, tomatoey, deliciousness packed with flavour.
We are fans around here of this type of dish. We make stuffed peppers, a stuffed pepper casserole, and this skillet version. Each has its own perks. Most of our kids prefer the unstuffed varieties, which is just fine with me since they are less work to make!
This ground beef unstuffed peppers skillet is an awesome weekday meal because it can be made ahead as a freezer meal AND it can be cooked all in one pan. This makes for an easy family meal and easy cleanup!
Unstuffed Pepper Skillet Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. lean ground beef, browned*
- 3 tsp. cumin
- 3 tsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. oregano
- 3 tsp. paprika
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1 yellow pepper, diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 14 oz. can tomatoes
- 1 tsp. lime juice
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 2 cups shredded cheddar or Tex Mex cheese
*If you want to make this meal vegetarian, you can substitute the ground beef for veggie ground round. It’s especially good with the Mexican flavoured one.
Assembly instructions:
- Cook the rice. Brown the beef. Chop the peppers and onion.
- Place all the ingredients except for the cheese in a large resealable freezer bag.
- Remove the excess air from the bag and seal.
- Place the shredded cheese in a medium freezer bag. Seal and staple it to the other bag above the seal.
- Freeze.
Cooking instructions:
- Thaw.
- Place the large bag ingredients in a skillet. Cook over medium heat until cooked through, stirring occasionally.
- Top with the cheese the last few minutes of cooking.
For the rice, you can use whichever type you prefer. Sometimes I use Minute Rice if I’m in a hurry when assembling meals while other times, I use a long grain or Basmati rice. I prefer the texture of the long grain, but sometimes time is of the essence.
This recipe is pretty forgiving. If you would rather swap out the red and yellow peppers for green pepper, go ahead. If you want to experiment with topping it with different cheeses, give that a try. As long as you stick with the basic components, this dish will turn out.
I always serve this meal with hot sauce because we’re a hot sauce kind of family. Honestly, the flavours of this skillet meal hold their own without the hot sauce so it’s not a required pairing, but we add our favourite hot sauces to pretty much anything. This is no exception. Don’t judge it until you try it!
- 1 lb. lean ground beef browned*
- 3 tsp. cumin
- 1 tsp. oregano
- 3 tsp. paprika
- 3 tsp. chili powder
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 red pepper diced
- 1 yellow pepper diced
- 1 onion diced
- 14 oz. can tomatoes
- 1 tsp. lime juice
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 2 cups shredded cheddar or Tex Mex cheese
-
Cook the rice. Brown the beef. Chop the peppers and onion.
-
Place all the ingredients except for the cheese in a large resealable freezer bag.
-
Remove the excess air from the bag, seal.
-
Place the shredded cheese in a medium freezer bag. Seal and staple it to the other bag above the seal. Freeze.
-
Thaw.
-
Place the large bag ingredients in a skillet. Cook over medium heat until cooked through, stirring occasionally.
-
Top with the cheese the last few minutes of cooking.
*If you want to make this meal vegetarian, you can substitute the ground beef for veggie ground round. It's especially good with the Mexican flavoured one.
Check out these other tasty make ahead meals:
Since this recipe is so simple to put together, I suggest making several at one time which takes only a minute or two longer than making just one. You’ll then be able to have this whenever you want to in less time than it would take to have food delivered. Or you can heat it in the slow cooker and have it ready when you get home from work. 
The Kung Pao sauce can be a bit hard to find. Neither of my usual grocery stores carry it. If you can’t find it near you, you can always 
Once you’ve got the sauce for this made and in your freezer, it becomes like a healthier, more delicious homemade Hamburger Helper. This meal is a real family classic.
This is so fast to make both when putting together the freezer meal and when cooking it that it just makes sense to make several at once time.
Chicken Marsala is named for its use of Marsala wine. This wine originates in Western Sicily. This dish is a variation of the traditional Italian Scaloppine.
