Day 146 - Baked Stuffed Tomatoes

Once again, I've spent practically ALL morning on the computer.  I did do some laundry, washed the dishes and made 2 separate breakfasts for the children though which made for a somewhat productive Saturday.
It's all those food blogs!  And man, with SO many delicious looking things!!  People are so talented with their cooking/baking, photography and writing.  I've added a few more to my "Delicious Blogs To Taste" on the right sidebar, so check them out when you have a chance.
Making different meals is something I said I'd NEVER do, especially when the kids were little!  My belief was, "this is what I made and this is what you're having.  If you don't like it, you're not having anything else".
That sounds so harsh.
I'm such a bad mother.
Those three kids are now teenagers and I'm happy to report that their growths were not stunted.  For a while there we were concerned about our son, but short stature is just in the genes.  Now he's just a smidge taller than mom at 5'3 or so, and hopefully still has a few growing spurts left in him.  So, it's all good.
Besides, even though they may not have liked what I made them for dinner, it really was a rare occurrence and even then they ate it anyway.  Grudgingly, but they ate it.
Believe me, they turned out ok, so there's no need to contact the authorities.
And now I make certain dishes when they're eating at someone else's house, so the rest of the family members can enjoy it and that one child doesn't have to suffer.
And we don't torture Mr. 365 with dishes he doesn't like either.  We have quiche whenever he goes away which is rare..  He doesn't like it, but the kids really do.  Surprisingly though, he really did like the Spinach, Bacon and Gruyere Quiche I made.
Anyway, I did end up making both scrambled eggs and oatmeal this morning, and it was only because the the kids awoke at separate times and their mother's a sucker for "Mom, can you...".  But that's ending here and now. I taught my daughter how to make her scrambled eggs and my son his oatmeal.
Tis better to teach people to fish than fish for them.

This is adapted from Lynne's Kitchen (no, it's not my other blog). I found the recipe when I was searching the web for stuffed tomatoes.  Thank you, Lynne!

Stuffed Tomatoes - serves four

4 tomatoes
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup fine plain bread crumbs
¼ cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced (mine were really small so I used 4)
2 tablespoons olive oil plus more for drizzling
2 teaspoons fresh basil, chopped
2 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon fennel, crushed
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons grated mozzarella

Place an oven rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 400ºF.
Spray an 8 X 8-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, combine Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, onion, garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil, basil, parsley, oregano, fennel, salt, and pepper
Cut the tops off and hollow out the tomato by removing the pulp and seeds with a spoon.  (I have a grapefruit spoon with a jagged edge that worked perfectly for this.)
Dice the pulp and add to the mixture.
Gently mix the ingredients until they are well combined.
Fill each tomato with stuffing and place in prepared baking dish.
Drizzle each tomato with olive oil.

Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
Place in oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. If baked for longer than 12 minutes, the tomatoes will soften.

The only problem I had with these was that they were too bread crumby and cheesy because I originally used a 1/2 cup each of the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.
Yeah, it was too much, so I reduced it in the recipe to 1/3.

Mr. 365 absolutely LOVED them and said it is the best thing I've made so far.

He's a nut!  Crazy.

Yes, they are good, but I don't think they're the best.

He just came back from a shower remarking again how delicious they were and thought that next time I should add some tuna or salmon.  I can do that to his, but this non-fish eating girl ain't havin' no part o' that.  No how!

I rate everything I bake on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the absolute best.  These stuffed tomatoes earned 3 1/2 rolling pins even though Mr. 365 thought they should "get a definite 4".


Happy Baking!