Cheesy Sausage Zucchini Casserole

It all started when I bought 2 zucchinis at the produce market last week. I’m sure I had good intentions at the time, and probably even a recipe in mind. This week? Not so much. Nonetheless, I still had 2 zucchinis on my counter, waiting to be used.

So I allrecipe.com-ed it; I usually like their stuff, I think because I only use recipes that have good ratings thus far. I thought about a dessert, but figured since I have 2, one can be for dessert and one can be for an entrée.

I found this recipe and decided to give it a try, with my tweaking, of course. Check it out; it’s a good starting point.

I added more onion than they called for, and added some celery as well. The amount of tomato was probably less simply because I used up the last of an already-cut one and didn’t feel like choppin’ into the new one. I omitted the mushrooms too, and then I cried a little. I forgot to get fresh ones, and turns out we were outta canned ones too. Very bad stuff in my house since I’m pretty much a mushroom freak! But back to the story . . .

I added a bit of Mrs. Dash’s garlic & herb seasoning to the sausage/onion/celery mix while it was frying. And since the pork I used was so lean, I couldn’t drain it [nothing to drain]. I also used an Italian cheese mix because that’s what we had on hand and I wasn’t about to go to the store for Velveeta alone [darn, coulda got some 'shroomies if I had!]. I think I used about 6 oz. instead of 8, trying to be a little healthier and all. Buppy commented that he didn’t think it was very cheesy, but I thought it was fine with the 6 oz. He’s a pretty cheesy guy though, no pun intended. No oregano in mine since I added the Mrs. Dash’s seasoning. Hmmm, what else? Oh yeah, I had leftover breading from the chicken tenders we made the other night, so I added that to the top halfway through cooking. It gave it a little bite since there were crushed red pepper flakes in the breading mixture.

So really, I changed up the recipe a lot but didn’t measure out exact quantities of what I used. Oh well. Can’t replicate it, but it’s a pretty good recipe to start with; I just worked with what sounded good and what I had on hand, and what I came up with was even tastier than I’d hoped for [not a big rice fan and all].

There we have it. Check out the original, change it up to suit your tastes and you’ll be golden. Enjoy!