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1
Preheat oven to 350.
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2
Cut the stems off the peppers, remove the seeds and membranes from inside, then rinse well with water to wash. Set aside.
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3
If you choose to use the lemon juice and sugar, combine them with the vegetable juice cocktail and set aside.
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4
In a bowl, add the ground beef, onion, salt, pepper, rice, egg, 3 tablespoons of water and 1/2 cup of the vegetable juice cocktail mixture. Mix until very well combined.
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5
Stuff each prepared pepper with 1/6 of the meat mixture. Place the stuffed peppers, cut side up, in a baking dish that will hold the peppers in one layer but keep them fairly close together.
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6
Pour the remaining juice mixture around the peppers. It should come to about 2/3 up the sides of the peppers.
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7
Spoon just a bit of the juice onto the meat in each pepper and place in the oven.
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8
Bake for about an hour (longer if you've used larger peppers), basting every 10 minutes or so, until the meat is cooked through, the rice is soft, and the sauce has thickened up a bit. It should look more like sauce at this point than juice.
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9
Serve and enjoy.
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10
Note: You can also prepare this on top of the stove in a covered skillet or an electric skillet. After adding the juice, bring to a boil, then lower the heat, baste, cover and simmer, and continue basting every 10 minutes or so until done.
