Stuffed Zucchini

 What a busy day! I have a lot going on in the next couple months, which means a lot of great things to look forward to and be excited for!

Exciting event #1: Bachelorette party in Chicago. My little sister (in my sorority) is getting married in May!

This is us in Chicago for New Years Eve. We liked it so much we decided to go back for her bachelorette party! My little sis (the bride) is the pretty one in the middle!

So today, I had to buy a cute little bright colored dress for the bachelorette party. I cruised around the mall until I found one I loved. I don't typically buy dresses, so it was kind of fun. As fun as trying on tons of dresses can be, I suppose. 

After finding a cute, bright pink cocktail dress, I headed over to David's Bridal, due to upcoming event #2...

Exciting event #2: Friend getting married in St Louis, and I'm in the bridal party! My other good friend (a different sorority sister) is getting married and I am lucky enough to be a special part of her big day! 

This is the david's bridal dress I chose:

Of course it will be a different color (blue, woohoo!) And of course I don't have ten feet long legs, but this dress was still darling! When she sent me the email with options of bridesmaid dresses to choose from, I fell in love with this one immediately. She said she picked it out with me in mind.  :) 

After a few hours in David's Bridal I had to run home and get online to purchase airline tickets, because....

Exciting event #3: Colorado!

I'll be visiting my sister in Colorado, and am so looking forward to re-visiting one of my favorite places!

This is us at our absolute favorite place to go in Colorado: the improv comedy club! I've never laughed so hard...

I have been making it a tradition to go out to visit my sis at least once a year, usually in the summer. We are holding true to tradition this year because I'll be going in about two months. This time will be the first year The Boyfriend goes with me. 

After purchasing tickets and talking to my sis on the phone, I had to jet to the gym, because....

Exciting event #4: Half marathon in Indianapolis, Indiana!

 That's right, I finally committed to another half marathon. Today I was able to hammer out 6 miles, which is good for my foot, which has flared up again with plantar fasciitis. (yes, that is the correct spelling, even though it looks weird.)

Phew! So what a day it's been! I was so hungry when I got home from it all, and excited about yet another thing...

Stuffed Zucchini

The original recipe was found here, or you can follow mine below. I will list the original ingredients below, but I either didn't have them all or I had altered amounts of some of them. So I put the changes in parentheses.

Ingredients:

1 extra large zucchini, (or 3 medium zucchini, or however many zukes you have. I have one extra large one, so I just used the one)

olive oil, for sauteing

one medium onion

1 or 2 cloves of minced garlic

fresh mushrooms, chopped

2 medium fresh tomatoes (I only had one, so I only used one)

fresh basil (I used dried basil)

1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used four tablespoons)

Daiya cheese for topping

optional: half a cube of tempeh, chopped up. Or you can add tofu, cubed or chopped. I added this for the protein factor, and because I love tempeh and it's flavor! 

1) Cut your zucchini in half

2) Scoop out the insides and put in bowl. Leave about 1/4 of an inch all around

3) sautee the onions first, then add the garlic. then add the mushrooms and insides of zucchini. then add the tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper, and tempeh. Mix together like so:

The tempeh is the meaty looking stuff. I've blogged about tempeh before here, but it's basically a protein option (22 grams of protein) and it comes in a square and you can find it at any health food store in the refrigerated section.

4) Put the breadcrumbs into the mixture and mix together one last time. This will thicken it up, and if they are "italian" breadcrumbs it will taste even more italian-y!

5) Fill your zucchini boats with the mixture

6) Top with cheese

7) Bake at 400 degrees for thirty minutes

This is the finished product out of the oven

  We decided this was our favorite zucchini recipe so far, it came real close to the lasagna recipe we made with zucchini. The Boyfriend even said, "I used to think zucchini was such a bland, blah vegetable that you had to eat as a side, steamed. Now it's like our favorite thing!" It's true, zucchini is great. And it's great for you:

• helps cure asthma
• high source of vitamin C
• antioxidant
• anti-inflammatory
• contains high amount of water and low amount of calories
• can reduce chance of getting MS
• contains high amounts of folate, potassium, and vitamin A
• contains B6, riboflavin, and beta-carotine
• helps protect the body against colon cancer
• contains lutein, which is good for the eyes

Dessert was a strawberry shake:

frozen strawberries

splash of almond milk

One for each of us! 

I topped mine with some toffee pieces and mixed it together:

Deeeee lish! 

 Have a great evening!