Family Meal

So, Eric suggested I blog some about my cooking.  Take note, it's nothing to be proud of.  I often fear killing someone with my cooking, but I've found if I can follow the recipes, it usually turns out ok (even if I overcook it to ensure all bacteria is killed!). 

In our family, we strive to eat organic.  We don't turn our noses up at fast food or sugar all the time, but on a daily basis, we try to avoid the really bad stuff and fill our diet with non-processed whole foods (organic if possible).  As a result, when I look for recipes, I try to find things that I know have organic counterparts.  I also look for things that will reheat well as I usually make everything on Sunday afternoon to eat all week.  I recently discovered this recipe for Meat and Tomato Stuff Zucchini:
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2009/09/recipe-for-meat-tomato-and-mozzarella.html

Note - my kids are not crazy about zucchini; however, if I mix anything with tomato sauce and ground meat of any kind, I can usually get smiles.  So, I tried it.  I modified it a little.  First, I didn't mix the cheese in with the meat.  It seemed like way too much and not really healthy.  I sprinkled a little on top though so the kids would think there was a lot of cheese in there.

Also, I don't know where she got her zucchinis, but that was a lot of meat to try to stuff in a few small veggies.  I ended up putting it in a casserole dish and surrounding the stuffed zucchini with the remainder of the meat (see pic).  It worked out perfectly!

To serve, we cut them in half vertically (Eric's idea) and ate them almost like pizza slices (except Jack who still needs things cut up).  It was a hit!

Another suggestion, I made the meat mixture ahead of time.  I hollowed out the zucchini right before stuffing them.  It really cut down on the total preparation time.  Always a plus!