Stuffed Peppers and Tomatoes

My favorite Macedonian dish! Love, love, love it! My landlady, Evka, taught me how to make these. You will see her with me in the top picture from Macedonia.

Stuffed Peppers and Tomatoes
Macedonian Traditional Dish

1 pound of meat (can be ground beef, veal, or pork, or a meat mixture)
5 green peppers
5 large round tomatoes
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 cup rice
1/3 cup of Extra Virgin olive oil
parsley
salt and pepper
your cheese of choice, grated
*for variation you can also add fresh mint or basil to the meat mixture

Chop up onion.
Chop up garlic.
Simmer and brown the onion and garlic in the Extra Virgin olive oil.
Add meat and cook it just until barely pink.
Pour in 1 cup of raw rice, stir for one or two minutes.
Add salt and pepper, continue stirring.
Take off stove, put in mixing bowl.
Add chopped parsley to the mixture and a handful of grated cheese.
Cut off the tops of the peppers and tomatoes and scoop out the interior. You can choose to save or throw out the tops. If you save them, you can put them back on the peppers and tomatoes after they are stuffed. Throw out insides of peppers but keep the tomato meat.
Take the insides of the tomatoes (tomato meat), chop it up, and add to the bowl of mixture.
Stuff the peppers and tomatoes three quarters of the way with the mixture.
Place peppers and tomatoes in the cooking dish. Sprinkle cheese on top if desired.
Pour some oil over the top of peppers and tomatoes, add a little more salt and pepper.
Cover with aluminum foil, cook in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 F (take foil off last 15 minutes).