Stuffed Zucchini

LeDonna sent me a picture of the stuffed zucchini she made for dinner, I immediately made it for us because it sounded so good and her pic was so pretty. I've stuffed zucchini before but haven't seen the technique used here of chopping up the insides of the zucchini and using it in the stuffing - seeds and all! Delicious.

 

3 medium zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup butter

1 small green pepper, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1 jar (2 ounces) diced pimiento, drained

1 cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat 2 inches salted water (1/2 teaspoon salt to 1 cup water) to boiling. Add zucchini. Cover and heat to boiling. Cook just until tender, 8 to 10 minutes; drain. Cool slightly; cut each zucchini lengthwise into halves. Spoon out pulp; chop coarsely. Place zucchini, cut sides up, in uncreased 11 x 7 x 1.5"  baking pan. Alternatively, you can microwave the zucchini instead of boiling it - put in microwavable dish, cover tightly, microwave 5 minutes. Turn zucchini, re-cover, microwave an additional 2-4 minutes. 

we aren't fans of green peppers, so I substituted
chopped celery to give it some crunch. 

Cook and stir onion in butter in 10" skillet until tender. Stir in chopped pulp, green pepper, pimiento, and stuffing mix. Divide stuffing mixture amount zucchini halves. Sprinkle each with about 1 tablespoon cheese. Cook uncovered in 350' oven until hot and cheese is melted, 25 to 30 minutes. 

LeDonna sent me the recipe from this un-named cookbook,
I don't know who to credit for the original recipe. 

Her photo before adding the cheese. She sliced the zucchini in manageable
pieces before baking it because she was using one of those really big ones instead
of the 3 medium sized the recipe calls for. 

Happy moment ~ saw our neighbor's turtles sitting on their rocks, Leo had his hand on Leona like he was giving her a boost (or telling her to get her big butt out of the way!) 

The Hulk Sized Zucchini

next to a summer squash for size comparison,
and it isn't a little summer squash!

My friend brought this ginormous zucchini over wondering what to do with it - zucchini bread was the obvious thought but then realized it's waaaaaay bigger than just zucchini bread. It's so big we made a few things with it...

We cut it in half and made one huge zucchini boat (I rubbed olive oil, salt and pepper on the skin and placed it in a very large roasting pan; then made 2 boxes of cornbread stuffing to fill the boat; baked at 375' for an hour - big enough to serve 4 people!)

lemon zest and juice in the batter,
then spooned lemon glaze onto
warm loaves. Smells SO good!

Using the shredding disc on my food processor (had to get the manual out to figure out how to use the disc!) I shredded the other half - it made 9 cups!  Ended up making 2 loaves of glazed lemon zucchini bread, chunky garden vegetable sauce, and put 3 bags (2 cups each) in the freezer. That's a lot of zucchini!

I freeze a lot of things this way - portion out and fill
 bags, flatten, then stick a straw in the top and suck out
as much air as possible to make it air tight.