Pizza Stuffed Peppers

Got a craving for pizza?  These bell peppers serve as flavor vehicle for all the pizza greatness you need.  Stuffed with Italian chicken sausage, pizza sauce, and topped with melty fresh mozzarella you can have pizza any time you want it! 

Before we talk about why these bell peppers are amazing, I wanted to share with you guys that I am re-reading the Success Principles book that changed my life.   By re-reading I mean I'm listening to snippets of it on audible when I drive.

I wish I had time to sit down and read it, highlight, and live it.  Right now, the only free time I have is driving or walking Nala, so I'm thankful for audiobooks.  The first principle is about taking 100% responsibility for everything in your life.  

When I first read/listened to this book, I learned to ask myself how I created a situation that wasn't going my way.  I now ask myself this question multiple times a day, seven days a week.  The key is, to ask without judgment.  I now look at it as feedback, an opportunity to improve and see more success.  Not criticism, an opportunity to wallow in despair.

For instance, when the dog got sick.  I asked myself how I created that situation, "was I not watching her well enough and she got into something, did I forget to bring her own water to the dog park, did I not feed her the right things, and so on."

In the past, I would have gotten angry, thinking the world was unfairly handing out crappy life cards to my pets and to me.  In fact, when I first got Missy, she got very ill and I cried a lot.  I felt like the world was against me and I just couldn't win.  Then I started thinking of it the terms of accepting 100% responsibility.

At that point, I decided that I purchased Nala and brought that responsibility into my home.  I created a situation of 100% responsibility for both my pets by bringing them into my house in the first place.  I accepted it as a fact of life.

If I wanted to, I could create a situation where she wasn't in our family, but I chose not to, and I continually chose not to because I love and enjoy my dog.  If I want my dog, then I want the financial and emotional burden that comes with her, end of story.

The thing about accepting 100% responsibility for the life that you are living and the actions you are taking, is that you end up accepting total control of your life.

 I find that EXTREMELY LIBERATING.  As a kid, I HATED getting in trouble.  I would lie through my teeth about anything and everything to avoid getting in trouble or to avoid having someone upset with me.

Complaints, blaming and making excuses are common tactics we all learned as kids to help us get out of taking 100% responsibility for our actions.   The thing is, we often continue developing those skills into our adulthood.  I blamed my hormones for my lack of results in the gym and made excuses as to why I didn't do the things necessary to improve them.

To take 100% responsibility you can't play the victim.  Playing victim seems like the easy way out.  When we play victim we relinquish control of the situation and therefore do not have to summon the courage to do what is necessary to change the situation.

We play victim to our hectic schedules and jobs as ways of making us feel better for not going to the gym, eating healthy, or sleeping enough.  We play victim to genetics when we gain weight or our health starts to decline.

 It's easier to play victim than to take the risks necessary to change the situation.  If you need more time for your health including sleep, exercise, and eating healthy.  You may have to forfeit a certain amount of time working to make that happen, at least initially.

Changes like that are scary, risky, and not easy to take.  Trust me, I know.  However, I find that now, I am more motivated to take the necessary jumps of faith needed because I've seen all the positive outcomes that occur only after I have taken the necessary risk to fix what is broken.

It's almost like a muscle I'm developing and I love it.  Here are a few questions from the book (The Success Principles, How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be) that help me develop that muscle.

• How did I create that? 
• What was I thinking?
• What were my beliefs?
• What did I say or not say?
• what did I do or not do to create that result?
• How did I get the other person to act that way?
• What do I need to do differently next time to get the result I want? 
• How am I creating or allowing this to happen?
• What am I doing that's working that I need to be doing more of?  
• What am I doing that's not working that I need to be doing less of? 
• What am I not doing that I need to try and see if it works?

What does that have to do with Pizza Stuffed Bell Peppers?  Nothing, except that they outsmart my craving for pizza and are delicious!

I love stuffed bell peppers with all kinds of fillings including hummus, cottage cheese, tuna, and anything else I can find.  I also love to eat them like an apple, I love the sweet crunchiness.  However, I should be specific, because in my house we LOATH all green bell peppers.

We love the orange and yellow, and use the red ones for very special occasions.  Orange bell peppers are a bit too sweet for a pizza stuffing in my opinion but perfect for munching on as a snack.  Yellow is slightly sweeter than red.  Red has a more pronounced bell pepper flavor, which totally works in a pizza recipe, but maybe not in other recipes.  Mr. Hungry and I think green taste like dirt.

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