MEAT AND RICE STUFFED ZUCCHINI RECIPE

When we had our glut of REALLY large zucchini, we used them for this wonderful meal.  Several of you suggested something similar in comments, so we did some googling and realized it was more or less just a make it up yourself kind of recipe.

And that's what we did:

We started with these two ginormous zucchini... 

Cut them in half lengthwise. Make sure you position them using the side that they lay flat on before you  start cutting them...

We took about 1 1/2 lbs ground beef, browned it with some seasonings such as garlic powder, minced onions, salt and pepper.  Then 2nd Man added some fresh diced tomatoes from our garden and cooked until it was all browned and combined.

You're really just making a meat mixture for stuffing so it can be to taste.  Peppers if you like those, more sauce, different seasonings etc.

While he was doing that, I took a spoon and scraped out the center of each, which is the fiber and seeds (much like you'd find in a pumpkin or other large squash).  I tried to make it a uniform thickness all the way down the length (leaving both ends intact) just be careful and don't scrape too hard or you'll rip a hole through to the outside...

Rice and meat stuffing

We also cooked a cup of white rice and added it to the meat mixture (makes it go further)...

Missed a photo step here. 

Put the hollowed out squash in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. This is to precook it a bit so it's tender, mainly because they were so large.  If you are using smaller sized squash, you could probably skip this step.

  After taking them out of the oven from their "par-cooking" time, we just started spooning the filling into the hollowed out zucchini "boats"... 

Make sure it's full (remember the meat is fully cooked at this point).  Mound it up a bit to make it more substantial...

Then sprinkle on some cheese.  In this case we used an Italian blend of shredded cheese...

Roasted zucchini stuffed with meat and cheese

Place the filled and stuffed squash back in the oven and roast at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes more, or until the zucchini is fork tender and the cheese gets brown and bubbly.  It might take longer or shorter depending on the size of your squash... 

Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Remove from oven, slice and serve!  

I ate the zucchini with the skin because it was good, 2nd Man left the skin behind as he ate it.  

It's kind of the perfect meal: the vegetable side, the main meat entree and it has cheese (dairy) and rice (starch).  Hmm, does that make in balanced?  HA!