Chrystal is the Mother of two little cuties, here in Kamloops.  She has previously shared some delectable recipes, here on KamloopsParents.Com.

Well, we finally managed to make it out to a Saturday morning farmer’s market! My mennonite blood was incredibly excited to see the zucchini’s! I’ll admit, it had little to do with my affection for them and everything to do with the fact that you could buy one the size of your thigh for TWO DOLLARS! That’s a lot of stinkin’ food, no matter what it is, for two bucks! I did manage to let my brain overcome my mennonite blood and settled for one the size of my calf for a buck instead.

Looking at this large zucchini at home I thought it might make a bit too much zucchini bread for my little family, especially because my hub gets a little suspicious of any baking that includes fruits or vegetables in it. I remembered having a zucchini boat at a friend’s house for dinner years ago and really enjoying it. So I googled a bunch of recipes and images to see what it might entail. I asked my husband a number of times if he was ok with me making it for dinner. Now, my husband not only has a “texture thing” he also seems to have an intense fear of most fruit and vegetables. See, we both grew up in northern BC, and vegetables up there pretty much consist of potatoes and carrots. Going out on a limb for dinner would be to cook asparagus. So cooked zucchini… a lot outside the comfort zone for him. But he said he was willing to try it, and I mean, there IS always pizza delivery. To both of our surprise he ended up not only eating the filling, but also most of the zucchini too! So I figure if my husband will eat it, this should be a fairly safe way of getting even the pickiest eater a big serving of veggies!

I made up my own recipe for the filling, but the best thing I read online was that whatever you decide to put in it just make sure it is very flavorful as the zucchini doesn’t have much to offer there, so your filling will also flavor the zucchini itself. I used ground beef, but you can use whatever you like. I also had the luxury of having my husband take the kids out while I created, but I’m sure you could use a food processor for a lot of the cutting with little helpers. For me there was the added bonus that nobody knew what I was putting in it…

Zucchini prep: wash and cut down the middle in half (just make sure you think about how it’s going to sit on the pan…) then scoop out all the mushy insides. If your family is less picky you can certainly save these to add into your filling, I chose to toss them because of my crowd.

1 pack of ground beef

4 cloves of garlic

1/2 sweet onion

5 (or so) mushrooms

1/2 red pepper

1 carrot

1 stick celery

1/2 cup cooked brown rice

cheese

First I put the rice in the rice cooker, then started the ground beef in a pan with half the onion diced and 2 cloves of minced garlic. I also seasoned it with pepper, onion and garlic powder, and a two finger pinch of cayenne. While that was browning I chopped up half the red pepper into small pieces (to hide them), minced 2 more cloves of garlic, chopped up about 5 mushrooms into super small bits (also to hide), chopped up one stalk of celery (although you could really do 2), and grated one large carrot. Once the meat was browned I stirred all the veggies and rice in and covered the pan to help cook the veggies through. While waiting for that to cook (and stirring every so often) I put my oven to 350 degrees and put my zucchini on a pan lined with parchment paper. Now, you’ll see in my photo I only made one half in the zucchini boat, but this is enough filling to fill both halves. Once the filling was done, I pressed as much filling into the zucchini as possible and loaded a little extra on top. I cooked it for 20 minutes, then took it out and covered it with grated cheese, returned it for another 10 minutes, and it was done! It was sooo tasty, we ate the whole thing! You can add anything you want to your filling, ground turkey, or even meatless, more veggies or different ones, just make sure whatever you put it, you have lots of flavor! I personally would recommend keeping the mushrooms, carrot, garlic and onion! Enjoy! And for those who have a ‘texture thing,’ The zucchini itself comes out fairly crunchy although cooked through, not the mushy mess you would fear if you dislike some textures.

About your Author | Guest

As always, you and your ideas are wonderfully welcomed. If you are interested in getting involved with KamloopsParents.com simply email elizabeth@kamloopsparents.com and we can chat! Your stories and images are fabulous!