Well........After a little experimenting, I've come up with something that is rather nice.....nice enough to serve to others. For a home alone, single person, one squash = 2 meals. The only thing is that each half needs to be baked in its own dish and I only have two. (The cheese melts over into the dish and you want that.) Plus, coming out of the oven means the dish is hot so it should be on another plate of some sort. That's a lot of dishes for a family dinner of 11 or so people.
Oh good. Due to the hot weather, the irises are happening lickety split. There's still mega pile of mulch in the drive way. My shoulders and back could use some time out. Weeding needs to happen every where. The grass needs to be cut everywhere. The hand clippers died this evening before I was done with them. The garage needs to be cleaned. ............. When are you arriving?
1 squash, either zucchini or summer, cut in half length wise. Scoop out the centers leaving enough squash to support a dish shape.
Combine: 2 slices of tomato, diced 1/8 cup finely diced onion 4 oz can of mushrooms, drained, diced 1/4 c frozen chopped spinach scooped squash pieces, diced
Combine: 1/2 c Pepridge Farm Herb Seasoned dressing 1/4 c Parmesan cheese 1/8 tsp garlic salt
Combine both of the mixes. Fill and mold the mix into both squash halves. Place each half into its own individual au gratin dish. Top with your favorite shredded cheese. I used mild cheddar. Provalone would probably be good too. Bake in a preheated oven, 350* 30-35 minutes, til done.
I also tried about 1/4 th of a small green pepper, diced and softened with the onion in a skillet first which was good.
It was very easy and took no time at all. One stuffed half made a meal for me. The other sat in the fridge until the next day when it was baked. This is clearly something that can be made ahead of time and baked when needed.
Note: Baking the squash half in foil didn't work well because when the cheese melts, it gets into the foil. Then you can't eat it which is too bad because it's delicious.
That sounds yummy! My son's mil is a vegetarian and I'm always stuck for what to make for her. This would work well. Question- is the Peperidge farms dressing a liquid? Unless I make a trip south, I'll have to find something to use in it's place.
The Pepridge Farm dressing is a turkey stuffing mix. It's in the blue colored bag which means it is crumbled rather than cubed. It's seasoned. I wouldn't have a turkey without it. BJ's or Costco sells it in a large box which contains two large bags of it.
There's room to personalize this. Some might like a touch of italian seasoning with this. I might try a little egg beater to moisten it up a bit more even though it didn't seem to need that. I definitely want to try the Provalone. But I really liked it as it is.
