My Zucchini Stuffed With Rice and Cheese Makes a Delicious Summer Dinner!

I used to grow a lot of zucchini until my garden became the headquarters of all the local wildlife.  For some reason, zucchini was always the first vegetable they targeted until I finally stopped planting it.  Now I'm lucky to put a few tomatoes, peppers, and herbs in, but when I had a lot of zucchini this is one of my favorite ways to make a main dish out of it.  

You can serve this zucchini topped with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese or your favorite spaghetti sauce for a delicious change.

Now whenever we get a taste for this recipe, I visit our local Farmer's Market.  I do hope you will try this dish because it is an excellent simple main dish.

My Zucchini Stuffed With Rice and Cheese Dinner

3 medium zucchini
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3/4 cup of rice, uncooked
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1-3/4 cups of water
3/4 cup of peas
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of Velveeta cheese, sliced thin or cubed in small piece
1/2 cup of Provolone cheese, grated or sliced thin
1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
Parmesan cheese 
spaghetti sauce (optional)

Cut zucchini lengthwise in half.  Scoop out and dice the centers while leaving 1/4-inch thickness of the shell.

Take the diced zucchini, onion, and garlic and cook in the oil over medium heat until onions turn golden brown and vegetables get tender. 

Add rice, salt, basil, and 1-1/2 cups of water to the vegetable mixture.  Heat to boiling before covering.  Then simmer for about ten minutes.  Add peas and simmer for additional ten more minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. 

Take the vegetable mixture off of the heat.  Now stir in the milk and the cheese and combine well.

In a large skillet, heat the zucchini halves in the remaining 1/4 cup of water to boiling.  Lower the heat and simmer this for about five minutes or until tender-crisp.  Salt the halves, if you wish.

Fill the halves with the rice-vegetable mixture.  Place back in your skillet, cover and cook over low heat just to heat through.

Top with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese or your favorite spaghetti sauce or both. 

Ferry-Morse Seed Company Review & Giveaway!--Ends April 9, 2011

**Disclaimer:  This post has been compensated through a free product (s) or monetary payment.  Opinions are solely mine. All links are "no-follow" links.**

Ferry-Morse Seed Company indoor tote

Ferry-Morse Seed

Now is the time to think about planting a garden!  With the rising costs of food and not to mention the dangers that constantly plague us with salmonella outbreaks to a bombardment of chemicals, eating these days has become challenging.  Naturally, you can buy a safer choice of organic fruits and vegetables, but they are quite a bit more expensive, which I'm not nuts about.  To save money and your health, I always like to grow  vegetables and herbs in every available space in my yard.

Two years ago was my first experience using Ferry-Morse seeds, which I am reviewing now with a variety of their other herbs and vegetables from my wonderful butternut squash and tomato experience.  I have tried the cheap dime seeds to the other name brands and never had as beautiful and healthy plants than with my Ferry-Morse. 

That beautiful butternut squash in my picture is my last one of my last Ferry-Morse crop. This tells you how hearty those seeds are!  As you guess, I'm already nuts about their quality seeds!

Ferry-Morse Seed Company outdoor tote

This year, I'm going to tackle beets, spinach, corn, tomato, squash, basil, and sage, and even if I resort to moving my herbs to the front yard.  I'm also going to try growing a tomatillo, which is good for making salsa, and by now everyone knows my fondness for hot, spicy food.  Beet tops are great greens to cook up like spinach in addition to eating the beets themselves.  Squash of any kind can keep long into the winter as long as you don't damage the stem when cutting it off. 

Basil and sage are my two favorite spices.  You can have fresh dried spices all year even without a dehydrator.  All you do is clean the herbs and place on a cookie sheet in a 150-degree oven for a few hours until they dry out.

my butternut squash

If you never planted anything, you can rest easy with Ferry-Morse, a shovel, water can, and pair of gardening gloves to protect your hands.  Any package will explain the time, location, and depth to plant each according to your location in the country. 

Connect with Ferry-Morse on Facebook and also on Twitter!

Thanks to Ferry-Morse, three lucky Nuts 4 Stuff readers win both indoor and outdoor totes shown plus an assortment of seeds ($100 value for each winner)!

Both Are Mandatory To Enter:

1. You must follow me on Google Friends Connect before any of your entries will count.  If you already follow, then tell me so in a comment.

2. Go to the Ferry-Morse website and tell me the what you would love to plant from their site in another comment.

Extra Entries:

Add @Nuts4Stuff to Your Twitter and tell me so in your comment with your Twitter id--1 extra entry

Tweet Ferry-Morse Gardening Totes and Seed Assortment #Giveaway @Nuts4Stuff http://tiny.cc/i36bm (can be done daily)--1 extra entry per day in another comment

Add @Ferry-Morse to your Twitter and tell me so in your comment--1 extra entry

Like Ferry-Morse on Facebook and tell me in a comment--1 extra entry

Subscribe to the Nuts 4 Stuff blog by email--1 extra entry (must confirm)

Subscribe to Nuts 4 Stuff in a reader--1 extra entry (Orange button in my sidebar)

List this giveaway on any giveaway site just leave a link to this post wherever you share it--2 extra entries (leave 2 separate comments and tell me where in each comment)

Blog about this giveaway and and comment with a link to the post--3 extra entries (leave three separate comments and tell me where in each comment)

Grab my Nuts 4 Stuff button and paste it in your sidebar--3 extra entries (leave three separate comments and tell me where you left it in each comment)

Add Nuts 4 Stuff to your blogroll  (using my URL) with a link back to me (comment where you left it for 1 more extra entry)

Leave a separate comment for each entry.  Be sure you include your email address inside your comment so I can contact you if you win.   This giveaway is only open to residents of the United States.  Do follow the rules because I check entries.

This giveaway ends April 9, 2011 at 12 PM Eastern Standard Time.  The winner will need to respond to my email with name and shipping address within 48-hours or another winner will be picked.