Baked Stuffed Avocados

I've seen a few variations of these avocados floating around, but when I set out to make them yesterday afternoon, I totally winged it.  I thought they turned out really well and were a perfect compliment to Taco Soup (recipe coming soon!).  There was little to no measuring as I tossed this together, but I'll give some ballpark measurements below.

First, I sliced two avocados and removed the pits.  I made little boats out of a large muffin tin and aluminum foil for the avocados to sit in.  I was afraid of the avocados tipping/rollling over as they were coming in and out of the oven -- it worked pretty well.  I chopped up a couple handfuls of grape tomatoes and tossed them in a bowl with a few drizzles of olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, and dried basil.  Once those were nicely coated, I dropped in a couple handfuls of Panko bread crumbs, as well as about a handful and half of Parmesan cheese.  I mixed these well, to be sure the bread crumbs and cheese were coated also.  I baked these for 5 minutes at 450 degrees and then turned the broiler on for about 2 more minutes.  Watch these closely, as I'm pretty sure they could go from golden to toasted in seconds.

Baked Squash Casserole

One of my many waitressing jobs included a year long stint at the Black-eyed Pea.  One my favorite things they serve is their Baked Squash Casserole.  This recipe comes to a pretty darn close resemblance of it!

Ingredients:
5 pounds yellow squash
2 eggs
1 cup breadcrumbs*
4 ounces butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
dash of pepper

Directions:
Cut the tops off the squash and cut into about 2 inch chunks.  Place the squash in boiling water and boil just until tender.  Drain and coarsely mash; a potato masher works really well.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Pour in a 3 quart casserole dish and sprinkle a light layer of breadcrumbs over the top.  Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

*for the breadcrumbs, I like to use King's Hawaiian Honey Wheat rolls.  These closely resemble the yummy honey wheat rolls that the Black-eyed Pea is famous for and what they use in their own squash casserole.  I let the rolls dry out for a day or night before I make this dish and just crumble them with my hands.