Stuffed Zucchini
2 medium zucchini, trim ends
2 links chicken Italian sausage, casings removed or pork Italian sausage
2 small garlic cloves, grated or minced
1 cup couscous, cooked
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
3 Tbls. Olive oil
2-3 cups tomato sauce
1/2 to 1 cup mossarella cheese, shredded
1
Follow directions on package of couscous for preparing one cup of cooked couscous. Wash and dry zucchini and cut off ends. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and with a spoon, scoop out the seeds and some of the pulp leaving a sturdy shell. Dice the pulp and reserve. Discard the seeds. Remove sausage from the casing and with a fork chop into smaller pieces. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook the sausage until light brown. Stir in the reserved zucchini, garlic and salt and pepper to taste and cook for 5 minutes to blend the flavors. Pour into a bowl and add the couscous blend. Add the onion powder and Parmesan cheese and blend well.
2
Lightly stuff the zucchini and place in a baking dish that has been sprayed very lightly with cooking spray and top with the tomato sauce. Bake until heated through approximately 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and add shredded mozzarella cheese, place back into oven until cheese melts.

Every year there seems to me an abundance of zucchini in the garden, but this year was not the case, at least in my area. I was so bewildered that while shopping I asked the produce manager if the store was having a problem with their shipments of zucchini from local farm. He agreed that there was and what they were receiving were unusually small zucchini and he attributed it to the lack of rain this summer.

Last year I made so many zucchini dinners and desserts that we didn't want to look at another zucchini However I was able to conjure up a few to make some delicious stuffed zucchini recipes. 

The beauty of any stuffed vegetable recipe is that there are so many recipes and so many interchangeable ingredients that you can use. Example: In this recipe I use couscous instead of rice for the binder in the filling and chicken Italian sausage for the protein. But both the stuffed pepper and the stuffed zucchini recipe are interchangeable.

Zucchini is low in calories, high in inflammatory properties and has a very low score on the glycemic index. Thanks to the high percentage of water, zucchini is low in carbs and sugar, but is high in nutrients like potassium, magnesium and vitamin A and C.