Please, No More Zucchini

Are you a gardener currently inundated with zucchini? A gardener’s neighbor who keeps finding a bag left homeless on your front porch? Are you taking bushels to work with you along with recipes for zucchini bread, zucchini casserole, grilled zucchini? If so, take a break from your zucchini dreams and check out our list of fun facts about one of the easiest vegetables to grow in your garden. Bet you’ll find out something you didn’t know before!

1. One zucchini has just 25 calories (compared to a baked potato, for example, which has 130 calories).

2. The flower of the zucchini plant is also edible. (If you dare.)

3. The world’s largest zucchini on record was 69 1/2 inches long, and weighed 65 lbs. Bernard Lavery of Plymouth Devon, UK, grew the humongous veggie.

4. According to World’s Healthiest Foods Nutrition info, nutrients and vitamins found in zucchini can help prevent cancer and heart disease.


5. A soap bar called Fresh Zucchini Flower Big Bar Goat’s Milk Soap (rolls off the tongue, no?) is made with real zucchini.

7. A zucchini has more potassium than a banana.

8. The word zucchini comes from “zucca” the Italian word for squash.

Kind of puts some perspective on your plethora of produce, doesn’t it?

Now get creative!!!

Ingredients:


•4 medium zucchini

•1/4 pound pork sausage

•1/4 cup chopped onion

•1 clove garlic minced

•1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

•1/2 cup Italian Style Bread Crumbs

  2 .fresh tomatoes, chopped

•1 egg, lightly beaten

•1/4 teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled

•1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

•dash pepper

Directions for stuffed zucchini


Cook whole zucchini in boiling salted water until just tender, about 6 to 9 minutes. Cut each zucchini in half lengthwise; scoop out squash, mash, and set aside. Place shells in a shallow baking dish; set aside. In a heavy skillet over medium heat, cook sausage with chopped onion; drain off excess fat; stir in mashed zucchini. Reserving 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese for topping, add remaining Parmesan cheese to the meat mixture along with remaining ingredients. Mix well. Spoon mixture into zucchini shells; sprinkle stuffed zucchini with the reserved 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Bake stuffed zucchini at 350° for 20 to 30 minutes.

Stuffed zucchini serves 4.