Italian Stuffed Peppers - Whole 30 Compliant

Have you ever picked out a recipe, bought all the ingredients and then on the night that you are ready to make it actually read the recipe and realized that it's not at all what you thought?  Well, that happened to me tonight.  So I had to improvise, and they turned out pretty well.  I'm capturing the recipe here on my blog so that I can make them again.  Plus I thought you might enjoy them, too!

Italian Stuffed Peppers

 Italian Stuffed Peppers

INGREDIENTS
3 large bell peppers
1-1/2 lbs lean ground meat (turkey or pork can be substituted)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp dried basil
salt & pepper to taste (What exactly does that mean?  I used a 3 shakes of both!)
1 - 24 oz jar of spaghetti sauce (divided)*
1 - 10 oz bag frozen cauliflower rice

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Grease a 9X13 pan
3. Spread 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce on the bottom of pan
4. Cut peppers in half, remove stems and seeds
5. Brown meat.  Drain.
6. Add garlic powder, Italian seasoning, basil, salt & pepper and half cup of spaghetti sauce.  Stir until combined.
7. Fill pepper halves with meat mixture and place in 9X13 pan. (I had some filling leftover which I used for my breakfast the next morning.)
8. Place a spoonful of spaghetti sauce on top of each pepper
9. Pour 1/2 cup water into the 9X13 pan.
10. Bake covered for 35 minutes.  Uncover, bake an additional 15 minutes.**
11. Prepare the cauliflower rice.
12. While rice cooks, heat up the remaining spaghetti sauce.
13. Serve the peppers on a bed of cauliflower rice and a spoonful of spaghetti sauce.

*If you are following a Whole 30 eating plan, make sure that your spaghetti sauce is compliant.
** If you are NOT following a Whole 30 eating plan you could top each pepper with some shredded mozzarella cheese.