1/4 pound ground beef
1/2 cup cooked rice
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
4 small zucchini
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons dill, chopped
1 teaspoon dried mint
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Slice zucchini in half lengthwise and remove the inner flesh. Chop the flesh into very small pieces.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the zucchini flesh, beef, onion, rice and seasoning.
4. Cook until beef is no longer pink, about 8-10 minutes, then stuff the zucchini skins with this mixture.
5. Place the zucchini in a baking dish with 2 cups of water, place in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes.
6. Combine eggs and slowly add the lemon juice, with juices from the pan. Use this as a sauce for the zucchini.

Makes 4 servings

1/2 pound shrimp
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup white rice
2 cups chicken stock
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 tablespoon dill

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add shrimp. Cook until flesh turns pink, then flip and cook the other side.
2. Remove shrimp from the pan, shell and reserve.
3. Meanwhile, add the celery to the oil and sauté until slightly tender, then add the rice, chicken stock and dill.
4. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to low, cooking until the rice is tender.
5. Add the shrimp back to the pan, stir and serve.

Makes 4 servings

Today is actually Cinqo du Mayo, so I feel like a bit of an ass for passing up an opportunity to make Mexican food tonight. Instead, I made Greek Stuffed Zucchini. Aside from zucchini being a little bit difficult to scoop the insides out of, it was relatively simple to make and well worth the effort. I imagine in a couple of months anyone that knows anyone with a garden is going to be bombarded with lots of zucchini, so this is definitely a good way to use up at least a small portion of it. The taste is very similar to the Tökfõzelék Hungarian zucchini with dill cream sauce dish I made Back in January, which stands to reason considering the flavors both come from zucchini, lemon and dill. I made half of the recipe without rice, but the ones with the rice were better. The ground beef really didn't add a whole lot to it and that it might be better stuffed with a zucchini puree and left vegetarian.

I'd cooked up some Lemon Asparagus for dinner last night and forgot it sitting on the stove top. So, I ate it for dinner today. I also made a quick Shrimp Pilaf, so the absent rice in the zucchini really didn't make much of a difference. I thought that perhaps the shrimp would impose more of a flavor on the rice, but there was very little, even in the shrimp itself! When I was a vegetarian I would often cook already cooked shrimp and always end up with chewy little bits. Don't let that happen to you! If you're going to use cooked shrimp, add it at the last moment. If you're using raw, remember to remove it and re-add it to the rice right before it's done cooking. Other than that, any rice pilaf is an easy side dish.