Pizza Stuffed Peppers

I have been on a serious pizza kick lately. Which, if you know me real well, might come as quite the surprise. Up until a few years ago, I HATED pizza! HATED! Couldn?t stand the smell of it, the rubbery cheese, the soggy dough, the bland toppings.

Well, long story short, I discovered 2 main issues resulting in my pizza aversion:

1. I had only tasted CRAPPY pizza. We are talkin cafeteria pizzas, $5 hot ?n ready, tony?s freezer special. You KNOW what I am talkin bout?

YUCK!

2. I don?t really like pepperoni! And clearly, all of the above cheap-o sources for pizza fixes were simple cheese & pepperoni pizzas.

Meet my FIRST pizza love:

Mmmmmm, the Supreme Pizza. Peppers, onions, mushrooms, italian sausage?perfect sauce:toppings:cheese ratio! J?Adore.

Except?.well?what?s the French phrase for ?My hips DONT love the excessive calories that come in the form of perfect doughy THICK crust?? Yeah, that might not translate right..

I solved my dilemma by whipping up these beauties the other night. In fact, I wasn?t going to post this because the lighting stunk, my camera was acting up, and I was so hungry by the end that I didn?t even get a picture of the finished product?..but they were SO GOOD, I couldn?t be selfish and hog all the success. You?re welcome!

Supreme Pizza Stuffed Peppers

4 large bell peppers

1 8oz carton mushrooms

1 medium red onion

1/2 lb italian sausage (turkey works great!)

1 large tomato

1/2 cup hot or mild pepper rings

2/3 cup marinara sauce

1/4 fresh mozzarella

Fresh grated cheese to taste for topping (I used pecorino romano- it is a salty sheeps milk cheese?parmigiano, more mozzarella or asiago all would work!)

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Lop off the tops of your peppers & remove seeds/membranes. Reserve the tops. Dice your peppers, mushrooms and onions. Place pepper shells in a baking dish.

2. In a pan over medium heat, brown your italian sausage- about 5-6 minutes. Add in peppers, onion & mushroom. Saute another 5 minutes.

3. Chop fresh tomato & banana peppers. To sausage mix, add tomatoes, peppers, marinara & cheese.

4. Fill pepper shells with mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. Turn oven up to 450, top peppers with extra cheese, and bake an additional 5-8 minutes- until the cheese melts & browns. Serve with garlic bread/breadsticks!

I also added a sprinkle of nutritional yeast on top because I am crazy like that. For my breadsticks, I also got a little crazy-

French bread, stuffed with artichoke hearts & asiago spread. Yeah. They were as good as they seem.

Pizza Hut ain?t got NOTHIN’ on me.

TGIF!