Chicken Sausage Stuffed Zucchini and Bell Peppers

So, I’m not going to lie.  Sometimes you see a theme in my cooking.  Yesterday chicken Italian sausage, today chicken Italian sausage.  And since I used the cast iron skillet yesterday, why not today?  I try to minimize my spending by maximizing my ingredients.  Most of my recipes are pretty easy to cut in half so if you’re not cooking for a large amount of people, you can make two different recipes out of one package of protein.  That, or you just have delicious leftovers for the next day!  This morning I took a good look at what I had in the fridge and came up with this recipe–the leftover stuffing, of course, went into my egg whites!  Enjoy and happy weekend!

Stuffed Zucchini and Bell Peppers

CHICKEN SAUSAGE STUFFED ZUCCHINI AND BELL PEPPERS

3 chicken Italian sausage links, casings removed
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 t chopped jalapeno or red pepper flakes
2 T Parmesan cheese, finely shredded
1/4 cup oat bran
2 T dried parsley
1/2 t garlic powder
pepper
2 large zucchinis, halved lengthwise and flesh scooped out, reserving half of the flesh
1 large bell pepper, halved and seeded

Brown sausage and onion in a cast iron skillet for 7-8 minutes, or until sausage is cooked through.  Add sun-dried tomatoes and zucchini and continue to cook for another 3 minutes.  Drain mixture into a paper towel-lined bowl.  Remove the paper towel and add the seasonings, oat bran, and Parmesan.  Season with pepper and mix well.  Stuff zucchini and peppers and place back in the cast iron skillet.  Bake at 375 for 30 minutes (I tented mine with a piece of foil in the last 10 minutes because it was getting a bit dark on top).