Stuffed Zucchini

Until yesterday, I had never made stuffed zucchini. But I thought this was quite good. I have to give credit to Life's Little Zucchini Cookbook for the inspiration.

2 medium to large zucchinis
2 boxes of your favorite stuffing mix (I like chicken flavor)
1 lb of ground turkey or beef (I suppose pork might be good too.)

Brown the ground meat and drain. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your favorite stuffing mix according to package directions. Slice the zucchinis lengthwise and scoop out the white, fluffy seedy center.

Mix the meat and stuffing together. Pack into the spaces in the zucchini. Heap if you need to. Place the zucchinis on a sheet pan. Cover (tent) with aluminum foil if you prefer moister stuffing. Leave the foil off if you don't.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Zucchini Pork Chop Supper

This is why I like real cookbooks. You can page through and find totally awesome stuff. This one comes from The Best of Country Cooking 1998. I adapted it to the ingredients I usually have on hand. The result is shake n bake-esque pork chops, creamy yet crunchy stuffing, and zucchini that's a little sweet. YUM!

3 boxes stuffing mix
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 lbs zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch chunks (no need to peel, do seed)
1/2 cup grated carrots
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1 tbsp fresh or 1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp pepper
6 loin pork chops (I used bone-in, they worked...)
Additional milk

Combine 1 box of stuffing mix with half of the melted butter. Place in the bottom of a greased 13x9x2-inch baking dish.

Combine soup, milk, sour cream, parsley and pepper. Add zucchini and carrots. Spoon over stuffing. Combine 1 box of stuffing mix with remaining butter. Sprinkle stuffing over zucchini.

Crush final box of stuffing mix (use a blender, food processor or zip-top bag and rolling pin, aim for coarse crumbs.) Dip pork chops in milk, then in stuffing crumbs. Place chops on top of casserole. Sprinkle remaining crumbs over all.

Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until pork chops are cooked through (use your meat thermometer and check!)

Pork Chops with apple pie filling and stuffing

Just for Brad :) I promise to share my homemade apple pie filling recipe this fall.

4 Pork Chops
1 can apple pie filling (or one quart home made apple pie filling)
1 package stuffing (I prefer chicken Stove-top)

Brown pork chops for five minutes per side in a hot fry pan. Make stuffing according to package directions.

In a 9 x 13 pan, place the chops. Dump apple pie filling over the top, Place stuffing on top of the chops.

Cover the pan with foil and place in 375 degree oven until the chops are done. Since the thickness of chops varies widely, I prefer to use a thermometer to make sure they're done, though it usually takes about 30-45 minutes.