Zucchini!

    A few weeks ago, while visiting my in-laws we were given two giant zucchini. Actually, what happened was my in-laws had a group of friends over for brunch the weekend we were visiting.. One man brought two large zucchini with him and was offering them to anyone who wanted them, first telling us that he wasn't sure what they were. Nobody else seemed to know what they were either, though people thought that one of them might be a zucchini. To be fair, one was yellow... but no one seemed to believe zucchini could be yellow or so very very large! As well, nobody else knew what to do with  them even if they were zucchini. Sometimes I want to shake my head and sigh, "Grown-ups!" Then I remember that I am a grown-up, too...

    Anyway, my husband and I gladly took them and have been enjoying a month's worth of zucchini bread (of the chocolate-chip variety- yum!) and, most recently, stuffed zucchini: which turned out amazingly well! I've been trying to experiment with meals on a weekly basis and am having fun. I bought a new cook-book called The Silver Spoon which has been inspiring me, and I recently bought and decorated a menu-board for our kitchen... to help me plan ahead a little bit more. The Silver Spoon included a stuffed Zucchini recipe, but my own version ended up being a totally different meal. Here is a photo:

Mmm... stuffed zucchini!

And here is my recipe:

•  Zucchini (I used half of one large zucchini, then halved that for two "zucchini boats" or "zucchini bowls"... each section was about 1 foot long)
• Ground beef (lean or extra lean)
• Bacon (4-6 strips chopped up)
• 1 Onion (chopped)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 1 Tomato (chopped)
• Parmesan cheese (grated-- approx 2/3 cup)
• Mozzarella cheese (grated--approx 2/3 cup)
• 1 can of plain tomato sauce (approx 4 cups)
•  Dried basil (to taste; approx 1 tsp)
•  Dried oregano (to taste; approx 1 tsp)
•  Dried parsley (to taste; approx 1 tsp)
•  Salt & Pepper

1- Cook bacon, onion, garlic and grounds beef in a frying pan, drain grease

2- Grease casserole dish

3- Take your zucchini and cut it in half length-wise so you have two long "boats." Scoop out the middles and chop those up.

4- Mix zucchini 1/2-all of the zucchini innards (for lack of a better term :)) in a bowl with the tomato, spices, Parmesan, meat, and onion.

5- Fill the zucchini with this mixture. If there is extra, pour it around the zucchini in the dish.

6- Top the zucchini with the mozzarella cheese

7- Bake covered at 300 for roughly 1 hour (depending on you oven). Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes to brown the cheese.

   The taste was rather like lasagna... except with zucchini instead of pasta, and without the layers. Serve with garlic bread and salad. 

-J.L.