Zucchini for you, Zucchini for me, Zucchini for everybody!!!!

As you know, if you read my post yesterday, we were without power like so many others in 10 different states all due to a straight line wind storm.  I think the saddest part for me was when we had to throw out all of the food in our fridge/freezer, and our chest freezer!!!  Throwing out all of it was hard but the hardest part was throwing out the 20 gallon size Ziploc bags of zucchini and squash that we had processed on Thursday(the day before the power went out).  I think that was the hardest because we worked so hard to grow it and pick it and take care of it… It was ours we didn’t go buy it!!! We worked hard for it…

Anyway during the power outage we had lots and lots of zucchini to pick in the garden but we decided to leave it on the vine and see what happened… We didn’t have any way to process it and at least still on the vine in the garden it was getting what it needed.  We were worried though that it wouldn’t last as long as we needed it to…It did though and boy did it grow…. This is just one of the biggest zucchini’s we picked once we had power again….that is a stock pot in the background…. this zucchini is about 14 inches long…. it was enough for 2 meals(which I am getting to…well at least one of them).

please click on the photo to see how big it is!!!

Anyway I am forever looking for recipes to use zucchini in or with because lets face it, steamed or sautéed zucchini can get old sometimes!  So I look at blogs and of course pinterest all the time for new and exciting recipes.!  So I found this original recipe on pinterest and used it as a base recipe for my stuffed zucchini.  I had to change some things for dietary needs but the concept is still the same…

STUFFED ZUCCHINI

Ingredients needed:

Zucchini

Ground Sausage(use what ever meat you want it was a sausage night for us)

Crushed Tomatoes

Mozzarella cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

Onion

Gralic

First step is to preheat your oven to 350 and to prepare your zucchini.  This zucchini I chose(pictured above) was enough to have 6 – 2 to 2 1/2 in cups.  Once it was cut into pieces I hallowed out the insides to hold the stuffing!

Second step is to prepare the stuffing. 

Use half of the onion, 2 to 3 cloves of garlic, the meat (inside part you scooped out) of the zucchini and blend them in a blender or food processor.  How much you want them blended is up to you… you can have it chunky or pureed it is all up to you and your families taste!  I went almost pureed with mine simply because the boy wouldn’t let the ninja go cause he likes pushing the button!!!  That’s alright though. 

Cook the meat in a very large skillet and once browned add the zucchini mixture and the crushed tomatoes.  Salt and pepper to taste and cook for about 10 minutes, just enough to blend the flavors. 

Once that is cooked through fill up your zucchini cups and top with the mozzarella cheese.

bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes depending on how you like the zucchini cooked….we like ours to still have a little bite to is so I went 25 minutes.

Enjoy! 

This was my plate and I couldn’t finish both pieces but DAMN it was good!!!

I have enough stuffing left for another meal and I can't wait...Might try something different this time!!!