Meat and Zucchini Bake

I was looking for a recipe that would help me use up zucchini but couldn’t find anything that sounded just right. So I made this up and it turned out quite tasty. I made the brown rice separate since it takes longer to cook but I wonder if you could put a layer of white rice on the bottom and make a main dish. The zucchini does give the dish some extra moisture, about 1/2 cup. You could leave the meat out and add more zucchini or other vegetables.

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 30 min.   Cook Time: 20 min.  

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup each-diced onions, sweet pepper, mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb. ground beef or sausage meat
1 tsp. basil (dried)
1/2 tsp. thyme
salt & pepper to taste
1 med. zucchini, seeded and cubed
2 c. spaghetti sauce
1 c. shredded mozzarella
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

Directions

Saute onion, sweet pepper and garlic in olive oil till softened. Add in ground meat and brown. Stir in seasonings and cubed zucchini and cook for 10 min.

Drain mixture if too watery and spread out in an 8×8 baking dish. Spread spaghetti sauce over the meat mixture. Toss shredded mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheese over.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 min.

Serve with brown rice or pasta.

Categories: Beef, Casserole, Other Main Dish, Pork, Vegetables

Tags: Italian

Submitted by: granma2girls on July 31, 2011