Stuffed Tomatoes and Peppers

Coming to the end of tomato season and you have all those tomatoes, right? This all-in-one meal is a great way to use them.

9 tomatoes
1 green pepper
1 small eggplant, peeled
1 carrot
1 tsp fresh chopped mint
1 tsp fresh chopped basil
1 clove garlic
1 onion
1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup couscous
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
olive oil
3 potatoes

First take the eggplant, peel and slice it, sprinkle with some salt and place between paper towels with something weighted on top. This will make it less bitter. Leave 20 minutes then wipe off the salt.

Meanwhile, cut tops off 6 tomatoes, scoop out the pulp, chop and put it in a large bowl. Cut pepper in half and slice a bit off the sides so that the sides are even.

Chop the sliced piece and add to the tomato pulp. Add grated carrot, chopped eggplant, mint, basil, salt and pepper.

In a frying pan heat olive oil and lightly brown chopped onion and minced garlic. Remove and add to vegetable bowl. In same pan brown the ground beef just until pink is gone. Spoon out any grease, then add the beef to the veggie mixture.

Put 1/4 cup couscous in a bowl, add 1/4 cup boiling water and after 5 minutes fluff. Add to mixture.

Use a slotted spoon to spoon out filling to stuff tomatoes and peppers. Put the tops back on the tomatoes. (It's not necessary, but it looks cute.) Reserve the juice.

Now scoop out the pulp from the remaining 3 tomatoes, chop and add to the reserved juice.

Stuff these 3 tomatoes with the remaining filling. Place the tomatoes and peppers in a baking dish (I used 2 smaller ones because my large ones weren't available) and pour in the reserved juice and pulp.