Cheese-Stuffed Zucchini Squash

It's that time of year, when zucchini is almost as plentiful as mosquitoes... almost. I try to find as many creative uses for zucchini as possible, for ourselves and for those who are buying the produce at our farmers markets. This one was DEEE-licious!

Stuffed Zucchini Squash

4 large-ish zucchini, about 3 inches in diameter
1 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon parsley
1/2-3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper, to taste
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sour cream
3 oz cream cheese
3/4 cup mozerella cheese

1. Boil zucchini, whole, for 10 minutes. Remove from water and let cool to the touch.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Cut zucchini lengthwise and scoop out all the pulp. Save the pulp for later! Place zucchini in a casserole dish. (I needed to use two because I had such large zucchini halves.)
4. Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add onions and carrot and cook until onions are translucent. 
5. Meanwhile, mush the zucchini pulp with a potato masher or fork.
6. Stir the zucchini pulp into the skillet with the onions and carrots. Add the bread crumbs, sour cream, cream cheese, 1/2 cup cheese, parsley, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Stir over low heat until cheeses are melted. 
7. Spoon the cheese-zucchini stuffing into the zucchini halves.
8. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
9. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup mozerella cheese on top of the zucchini. Broil for 3-4 minutes, until cheese is melted and stuffing starts to golden.

TV Dinner

Sometimes my cooking is Chopped meets Macgyver. "Your ingredients are: ground beef or pork, tortilla chips, fresh tomatoes, and eggs, and maybe some old Velveeta cheese. Invent something that five will eat." In fact, I'd like Dinner: Impossible to try to succeed at this challenge: "You have 30 minutes to prepare a meal for six while simultaneously caring for a 3-year-old and 8-month-old, finishing homework with an 6-year-old and 8-year-old, setting the table, and make it nutrition, delicious, and safe. GO!"

At least, that's how tomorrow's challenge feels. We used up (nearly) all our cheddar cheese tonight, and just about all the taco meat. What can I say? The tacos were delicious! So, now I'm improvising. I have two bags of tortilla chips and if I serve chips with dinner, the battle-of-clean-plates is non-existent, so I really want to use chips. I have lots of ground beef, pork, and sausage. So, I think I'll make a sausage con queso with velveeta and serve it with fresh chopped tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, sour cream, the remaining fresh cheddar, and (for the adults) jalapenos.

Take THAT, Chef Robert!

p.s. Gotta give credit where credit is due. Jay the Man made tacos tonight, serving the chopped vegetables he's growing in his high tunnels. He's a good man. He even threw together an apple dessert...mostly because he wanted to use his new apple peeler.