Stuffed Zucchini

Background

Several years ago, when living in the northern Midwest, I made my foray into vegetable gardening after realizing how much money I was spending on produce.  Besides the amount of work that goes into creating a garden of this sort, I learned one very important thing: you have to watch your zucchini plant closely.  Otherwise, this happens:

Now, let's fast-forward to the present.  I once again have a vegetable garden, but this time in California, where I'm now convinced all plants are sold with alien steroid technology in them.  This garden is largely thanks to my father, who built me a gorgeous custom planter box and then planted vegetables for us while we watched over our family's newest edition.  At the beginning, I was quite good at checking the plants regularly, but with an infant in the house, that regularity becomes a thing of the past more quickly than one might think.  I was still getting out about 3 times a week, but what I wasn't doing was spending enough time looking.  Yesterday, I picked up a leaf I ordinarily don't look under and discovered... well, I'll let the picture do the talking:

Yeah, it's worse than the first one.  We weighed it: 5 lbs.  Thinking that when I cracked it open, it would be all seeds (like the previous zuc), I figured I wouldn't be able to do much with it.  Turns out, it didn't have that many seeds at all, and I had halved it lengthwise, so it was perfect to stuff.

Ingredients
1 unbelievably giant zucchini -or- 2 large regular, non-mutant zucchini, halved lengthwise
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground turkey (or 2 lbs. of one of these - this is just what I had)
1 egg
1/2 C. whole grain bread crumbs
1 8 oz. can diced tomatoes, not drained
1 small red onion, chopped
salt, pepper, granulated garlic, dried rosemary, dried oregano, etc. to taste
goat cheese (optional)

Directions

Scoop seeds out of each zucchini half, making sure the hole you create is big enough to hold a stuffing mixture.  I scooped some of the flesh of the zucchini as well.  If you do this, reserve it in a bowl and mix it into the stuffing.  Place zucchini halves in a 9x13" baking pan (or 2 if you have the giant mutant variety!).

Mix the rest of the ingredients together, mashing with your hands.  Stuff mixture into zucchini.  It will be quite tall.  Any extra can fall to the baking dish around the squash.  It'll cook too.  If you are using goat cheese, press little chunks into the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for an hour, or until meat and zucchini are cooked through.  Let cool a bit and enjoy!