foodie friday : stuffed zucchini

I just got my garden planted, which totally means I need to be gearing up for when I am overwhelmed with the massive quantity of produce I won't be able to eat alone in a couple of months.  Time to try a new recipe.  Because I'm the only one in the house that will eat zucchini muffins.

Actually, that isn't really why I made this.  I made this because my popping-5-teeth-including-4-molars-all-at-the-same-time toddler was back to his old ways of being super angry at me when I tried to get in the kitchen and be productive feeding him, so I totally only paid attention to the ingredient list for the beef and barley stew recipe I was gearing up to try.  I prepped for that with him angry at me, was totally ready for the next 20 minutes of sautéing everything with him on my hip, and then I looked at the directions and found out that it would be a 2 hour simmer time instead of the 30 minutes that I thought based on the episode of The Chew that I watched and I needed us to eat like now.  They should really include the "or you could do it this way" directions that they mention on the sly with their recipes.  Just saying.  So then I switched gears and got started on the quicker, less prep meal that I had planned for this week... these sausage stuffed zucchini.  Let me tell ya, Myles was super thrilled with that new development.

I looked at a million different recipes, and then got annoyed and just did whatever I felt like doing with all of that research in mind.  The result was awesome and you should probably remember to thank me later.  And make the whole batch, because I only did half just in case we weren't thrilled with it; after the first bite I was really mad because I could have eaten a lot more of it if it had been available.

italian sausage stuffed zucchini

by: me.

4 medium zucchini 

1 lb italian sausage

1/3 C plain breadcrumbs

1/3 C grated parmesan

1/2 medium onion diced

about 1/4 C your favorite pasta sauce

shredded mozzarella

Cut the zucchini length wise in half, scoop out the seeds.  Place in a microwave safe dish and cook for 2 minutes until crisp/tender.  Meanwhile, cook the sausage and onion.  Mix together the cooked sausage and onion with the breadcrumbs and parmesan.  Add enough sauce to help hold it all together.  Fill the zucchini with the meat mixture and top with the shredded mozzarella.  Bake at 350F for 30 min.  Serve topped with warmed sauce. 

We had this with some garlic bread; it might be fine with some pasta or just a great salad of some kind.  I was completely in love with this as something different than our norm.  Kyle had his typical reaction but did actually eat 2 of them with no complaints.  And Myles gobbled it up.  So this is going to be repeated for sure.