stuffed peppers

I'd be lying if I said I haven't been dreaming about stuffed peppers since having a delicious plate of them at a Mexican restaurant about a month ago. I finally decided to try them out since I had leftover green peppers from my lackluster quiche. I searched for a recipe but never found one that sounded exactly like what I wanted or I didn't want to invest in so many ingredients. I gleaned a general idea of the process from here and here and decided to make up my own recipe.

Don't laugh, but I have issues with rice. It baffles me. Growing up, I didn't know much existed beyond the white variety and thought it all should take a minute to cook. (No offense, Mom) I have since become aware of the infinite world of rice but am still generally confused by it (and bitter about how long it takes to cook!). Hence the dilemma at my deli last night. The clerk must have thought I was a moron because I reviewed the rice selection for about 10 minutes before picking one up. I might have even walked away, doubted my choice, and went back to peruse the rices for another 5 minutes. 

Luckily, I found a version that didn't take too long to cook up (although anything longer than a minute seems like an eternity). I combined the cooked rice with some onions, black beans, corn and goat cheese then stuffed in all in two cored green peppers. Then I popped them in the oven for 45 minutes. It was surprisingly good! If I hadn't been starving and started the whole process earlier, I would have left them in the oven for a lot longer. My peppers were still a bit crisp. Ideally I would have liked them to practically deteriorate away. Next time I would also add some kind of sauce, like a red or green enchilada kind. Oh! And maybe come chicken would be good too. I swear my version was good, but now I can't stop thinking about how to make it better!

P.S. Sorry about the shrivel-y closeups of the pepper. They taste much better than they look!