Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Stuffed Zucchini

I've been staring at this giant zucchini on my counter now for like 3 weeks.  Yes, I said 3 weeks.  Don't judge.  LOL  I'm pretty much zucchini breaded out......so, I had to do something else with it.  Hence, the stuffed zucchini was born!

I'm so happy my garden grew me a giant zucchini!!!!  Want to know how many ingredients this recipe calls for????  THREE!  That's right, I said three!!!  (Ok, well, there are technically 4 when you count the cheese you put on top, but it's not part of the prep process, so I'm not counting it!  LOL)  And nothing goes to waste here folks, I didn't throw out the zucchini I scraped to make my little boats.  Nope!  I chopped it up and put it back in as stuffing!  Mmmmmmm!!!  These were really delicious!  And because you can eat the skin of the zucchini, unlike squash, there is literally no waste!

There is so much you could do with these to make them suit your family.  I used milk pork sausage, but you could use the spicy kind, or, you could use ground beef or ground turkey.  I used Pork stuffing to go with my pork sausage, but you could use chicken stuffing, turkey stuffing, etc.  Make it your own!

My husband actually had a BRILLIANT idea for our leftovers tonight!  (I'm so proud of him!)  He thought it would be awesome mixed in with scrambled eggs.  You know what?!  He was SO right!  He scrambled some eggs with onions, chopped up our leftover stuffed zucchini, added it in, melted some cheese on top and made a delicious new dinner for us!  He even cooked potatoes and onions!  Love that man! <3

I hope the step by step pictures help ease your mind when it comes to stuffing these zucchini!  I don't want intimidation to keep you from trying this!  Your family will be so impressed with your mad kitchen skills!  And yes, you can tell them...."I did it in the Crock Pot!"

As always, I did all the prep work the night before.  In the morning, all I did was take the Crock out of the fridge and plug it in! :)

Stuffed Zucchini

Ingredients:
1 box Pork Stovetop Stuffing (prepared according to directions on the box)
1 16oz. pkg. Mild Pork Sausage, browned
1 GIANT, 2 Large or 4 Medium Zucchini (Remember, I had a mammoth 1.5 ft. Zucchini from my garden)
Mozzarella Cheese

Directions:
While you are browning your pork sausage and making your box of stuffing (which literally takes like 3 minutes), make your zucchini into little boats.  You want to scoop out the insides by leaving a nice border around the edges like so.
I just used a teaspoon, so you don't need anything special to do this.  I scooped the guts into a bowl.

Roughly chop up your Zucchini guts...
And then add them in with the browned sausage, along with your cooked stuffing.

I sliced just a tiny piece off the bottom of my little zucchini boats so would sit flat in my crock.

Stuff your mixture into your zucchini boats and place them into your crock.

Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours.
Zucchini has a high liquid content, so you do not need to add any liquid to these.  They will be ok, I promise!  
To get them our of your crock, well, I used tongs and a slotted spoon, working in unison!  It takes patience and skill!  LOL

Place your Stuffed Zucchini onto a baking tray and sprinkle with cheese.  Put under the broiler for a couple minutes.

Serve and Enjoy!
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5 comments:

  1. Brilliant!!! And SO simple and versatile!! Can't wait to find a GIANT zucchini so I can try these! If I don't find one, I will for sure be spending way to much on some mini ones in the grocery store to try this yummy recipe!!

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    Replies
    1. LOL! Now is the time of year to get those giant ones! Hit up your local farmer's market!

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  2. Fantastic! I had wild rice stuffing mix on hand, so I used that. I thought I had pork sausage, but no, so I used chorizo instead! I can't say enough how good this was! Thanks for sharing!!
    Melissa

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