Stuffed zucchini topped with bacon soaked in honey & chili powder for a sweet & spicy entree. 

I have zucchini in my garden. Lots of zucchini. Some are small, some are ginormous. I recently had a monster grow out there and needed a recipe for it. Enter the Crazy Ingredient Challenge. This months ingredients were prefect! It was a great addition to the recipe and it made the bacon candied and  yummy.

This month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge was one I really was hoping to happen. As a group, we vote on two sets of four ingredients and the winner of each becomes the challenge of the month. These two were my choices and I couldn’t be happier that they won.

This month: Honey & Chili Powder!

Sweet & spicy! I love this combo so I couldn’t be happier…..  And even better, I had that zucchini-zilla in my garden ready to be eaten.  I don’t know about you, but my zucchini plants are pretty prolific so we’ve had lots of squash this season and it shows no signs of letting up.

The cool thing about stuffed zucchini is that you can stuff it with anything; your favorite meatloaf recipes, hamburger, seafood and other veggies. This is a versatile recipe idea that I’ve used more than once. This time, I used Italian sausage and other goodies I had in my fridge. Many ingredients, such as the shallot and garlic, came straight from the garden so if you have a garden yourself, you’ll be in zucchini heaven!

Stuffed Zucchini Ingredients

6 slices maple bacon
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon chili powder (more if you like spicy)
1 large zucchini squash, sliced lengthwise and seeds removed to form two “boats”
2-3 mild italian sausage, casings removed.
1 – 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 large shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1/3 cup Italian Seasoned bread crumbs

Assemble your stuffed zucchini:

Place the bacon in a plastic bag. Add the honey and chili powder, stir to coat. Let it sit in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

In a skillet on medium heat, add the sausage and crumble it up. Throughly cook the sausage. Drain and add to a large bowl.

In that bowl, add the cream cheese, shallot, garlic chopped green pepper and bread crumbs. Mix throughly.

Place half the mix in each of the halved zucchini. Place zucchini on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil.

Lay the bacon along the zucchini, either lengthwise or along the short end. ,

Bake, uncovered 30 minutes. Slice and enjoy.

You can customize this recipe many ways:

• Use medium or spicy Italian Sausage for some kick
• Use a flavored cream cheese, such as garden vegetable or chive, to add flavor
• Add shredded mozzarella or parmesan cheese for some ooey gooey goodness.

This is such an easy meal to make or since you can add all sorts of stuff to the filling. It’s easy to make this a signature dish your family will remember.

What’s your way to make a stuffed zucchini? I want to hear your ideas!