Italian Stuffed Squash

As you can tell from most of my posts I love one-pot wonders and soups/stews. If I can get the entire dinner into one dish I'm happy. I'm not sure why this -- but I tend to lean that way. I was surfing around aimlessly and found this recipe and knew it would be easy to make it vegan. I made these for dinner Monday night, but I felt something was missing. Last night I heated to two leftovers and decided to cook organic baby spinach  in a dab of olive oil with 3 big cloves of slices garlic. Yum! I served the squash over the spinach and it took the recipe over the top!!! Give this one a try for sure.

• 2 large yellow squash
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
•  2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
• 1 package Field Roast Italian Sausage, pulled into pieces
• 2 8-ounce cans tomato and basil tomato sauce
• 3/4 cup Diaya mozzarella shreds
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1/3 cup Panko
• 1 tablespoon canola oil 

Preheat oven to 350. Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds (I used my melon baller) then set aside.

Heat canola oil and saute the onions, peppers and mushrooms over medium high heat. When onions start to turn clear add garlic and saute for one minute more. Remove from heat and put into separate mixing bowl.

Brown Italian sausage together with the parsley and basil.

Add cooked Vegetables to back to the skillet. Add tomato sauce and simmer until the mixture has thickened and liquid has cooked off, about 5 minutes, then turn off heat.

Add 3/4 cup of shredded cheese to the pan and stir.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spoon the meat-cheese mixture into squash, pressing down with the spoon and mounding it up a little over the top.

Bake stuffed squash for 20 minutes, then remove from oven and top each squash with some panko. Put back in oven and bake 10-15 minutes more, until squash is slightly soft when pierced with a fork. Serve hot. 

Enjoy!