Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Peppers

Now that warm weather is here, Lee & I  have been grilling like crazy. This is one of my favorite side dishes/appetizers to make when we are grilling out. Cheese stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon...anything with bacon and cheese is going to be amazing, but add in some peppers, and you've got a prize-winning concoction. I love making these peppers because I do like some spice here and there, but they can easily be made with sweet peppers if your family doesn't do spicy. I usually do a few jalapeños and a few sweet peppers all at once. Here's how to make them:

In this picture I used a jalapeño pepper, but the recipe is also really good with mini bell peppers. The bell peppers are sweet, not spicy, unlike like the jalapeños.

Ingredients
3 jalapeños*
3 mini bell peppers (any color is fine)*
4 oz cream cheese (1/2 block)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I have used colby-jack before, but the cheddar really is better)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
about a 1/2 pound of bacon strips, uncooked**
8-12 toothpicks (optional)
Aluminum foil

*The amount of peppers you will need to use up all of the filling will vary depending on the size of your peppers, but this recipe makes about a dozen stuffed peppers.
**Use any kind of bacon you like, but I do not recommend using thick cut bacon because this will take much longer to bake.

Start by  preheating your oven to 400 degrees and lining a baking sheet with foil. This will make for easy clean up. Slice the stem off of your peppers. Next, slice them in half long ways and pull out all of the seeds.

In a small mixing bowl, combine your onion powder, garlic salt, cream cheese, and shredded cheese. I use my hands to mix these ingredients together.

Next, use your fingers and press a small amount of the cheese mixture into each pepper. Make sure the pepper is full, but not over-flowing. Once your peppers are stuffed, wrap them in bacon. You may need to cut some of the bacon slices to fit the smaller peppers. If you want, you can stab them with toothpicks to make the bacon stay in place. I have made them several times with and without toothpicks, and they have turned out fine both ways.

I like to line my cookie sheet with aluminum foil because it makes an easy way to dispose of the bacon grease afterwards. Just fold up the foil and dump it in the trash! 

Place your peppers on your baking sheet and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the bacon looks cooked through. I usually set a timer and check my peppers every 15 minutes, because depending on the size of the peppers, they may cook quicker, or could take a little longer.

MMM!