Pizza!

Who doesn't like pizza! My sisters and I loved pizza night at our house. My mom made homemade pizza crust and we girls topped our pizza dough with assorted toppings. When I was younger my pizza would have looked like a blank canvas. I didn't like bell peppers, olives, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Well, what is left? Cheese and pepperoni! When it came to enjoying a pizza with my family, I would take a piece of the veggie loaded pizza with meat of course for my dad and then begin the process of picking off all the toppings. My parents wouldn't order an individual pizza just for me because I didn't like all the toppings. I appreciate now that my parents didn't cater to what I didn't like at the time because my palate evolved. Repetitive introductions to these vegetables provided my palate an opportunity to develop a liking for them. So, parents don't give up if your kids do not like a lot of different vegetables but keep introducing them.

                                                           Stuffed Bell Pepper Pizzas
I thought I would blend together two meals that I grew up eating as a kid, pizza and stuffed bell peppers. For those nights that you don't feel like spending a lot of time cooking, prepare this for dinner. I started off by preparing my homemade tomato sauce. You can skip this step and use a store bought tomato sauce. The rest of the steps just include preparing the stuffed ingredients. This is definitely a kid friendly and picky eater meal because everyone can choose the ingredients to stuff their peppers with. Also, try using the red, orange, or yellow bell peppers.

1) Cut the tops of the bell peppers. Remove the seeds and membrane. Slightly precook the bell peppers, either in the microwave for a minute or for a few minutes in the oven. Peppers should still be firm enough to hold their shape. This step is to ensure the peppers are cooked throughout after final baking.
2) Place the bell peppers in a muffin tin.
3) Spoon enough ricotta cheese (try my homemade buttermilk ricotta cheese recipe- http://whitneymillermc.blogspot.com/2012/03/back-to-basics-cont.html) or cottage cheese to cover the bottom of the bell peppers.
4) Top with diced vegetables such as eggplant, mushrooms, onions, etc., sliced black olives, crumbled sausage, etc. Slightly press down the veggies and/or meats in the peppers.
5) Spoon tomato sauce (try my tomato sauce recipe in my cookbook on pg. 112) over the veggies.
6) Bake the stuffed bell peppers in the oven on 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.

7) Top with shredded mozzerella cheese and bake for an additional 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.
8) Enjoy!