How to Make Stuffed Zucchini

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$10 can go a long way when you’re grocery shopping at Aldi. In this video, Nicole shows you how to feed your entire family on a budget with this easy stuffed zucchini dinner from Aldi!

Transcript

00:00I'm going to show you how I feed my family on a budget.

00:05I'm making dinner for $10 from Aldi.

00:10For the record, I'm not going to buy just junky, cheap ingredients just to fit the budget.

00:15So I'm only going to buy real things.

00:17No way you can get that price anywhere else, and it's organic.

00:21Start with my protein, and then I go to my vegetable because we have to have some veggies in there.

00:24Seriously.

00:25Now, while these are on sale, they're only regularly $1.50.

00:29And then I might tie it all together with some sort of convenience product.

00:33I think I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to take the bigger pack for the same price.

00:38Okay, I was wrong on the zucchini price. It was actually $1.29 per pound.

00:42So I didn't know that until I got up to the register.

00:44I could have gotten a smaller pack, and I would have done it, but instead it was $10.77.

00:50Don't get mad at me.

00:54We did it. We did it.

00:56Let me review what we got and what we're making.

01:00So we are going to make stuffed zucchini with garlicky herb goat cheese and cooked in a thin tomato sauce,

01:08kind of like the Lebanese stuffed squash, and it will go with angel hair with herbs.

01:14And then as a shortcut, I'm going to flavor it with a flavorful cheese so that we didn't have to buy other ingredients.

01:20This, when it melts in there, is going to get nice and creamy.

01:23So let's go. And you know this meal is going to be easy because this is all I have to work with.

01:27So not only is it budget friendly, but it's also easy.

01:31If your family doesn't like zucchini, because my kids won't eat zucchini, that's fine.

01:37They don't have to. You can make this mixture and stuff it into a bell pepper,

01:43the Philly bell pepper, or just toss it with the pasta and leave the zucchini out.

01:49Another veggie, you know, still $10.

01:53So I'm going to start by cutting the zucchini in half and scooping out the center.

01:57Plus, I think the only thing the kids don't usually love is the inside of a zucchini.

02:02So if you've got most of that scooped out, it just kind of tastes like a potato or something.

02:06This is just going to be plenty, and I have a family of five.

02:09So if you have a family of less than that, then again, totally doable for $10 or less.

02:15So this could even yield leftovers.

02:17All right, then just place our zucchini down in a casserole dish.

02:21I'm going to chop up, like, the fleshy bits of the inside and add them to my filling,

02:26just another way to kind of bulk it up a little bit.

02:28That's it. That's the extent of the prep.

02:30Now we just cook off our meat.

02:32Now, if I was at home, but I don't want y'all judging me,

02:36I would probably, like, add things like onion and garlic at this point

02:39because those are just what I call pantry staples,

02:42but didn't want you to hold anything against me.

02:45Get this nice and hot, and then we'll just add in our ground beef.

02:48Get your oven going.

02:50And we could get our water boiling for our angel here.

02:54Don't mind me.

02:57Two-thirds.

02:59And then this also cooks in milk.

03:01Everyone has milk on hand, right?

03:03If you have half-and-half cream, whatever kind of milk you want.

03:06And some butter.

03:08It's going to be delicious and creamy.

03:10Okay, hot skillet. Back to this.

03:13Season it up with a little salt and pepper.

03:18And I'm going to add in a little bit of onion powder.

03:21Since I'm not using onion.

03:23All right.

03:25Ground beef. Good.

03:27So I'm going to go in with my chopped up zucchini

03:30and just cook that down a little bit.

03:36Once the zucchini is soft, I'm going to stir in our creamy flavor.

03:41Garlic herb goat cheese.

03:43Now you could also sub here any kind of flavorful cheese.

03:46And when you mix it in with this savory beef,

03:51it's going to kind of mellow out the tanginess of the goat cheese.

03:54Then I'll just go ahead and remove it from the heat and finish it over here.

04:03See how good that's looking.

04:06I'm going to go in with a couple tablespoons of breadcrumbs.

04:09Again, this is a pantry staple.

04:10If you don't have breadcrumbs, you could crush up crackers,

04:13a slice of bread, chips.

04:15Anything that just kind of absorbs counts as a breadcrumb.

04:20So it does not count as an ingredient you have to buy.

04:23I'm going to add in an egg because that's a pantry item.

04:26And it's just going to kind of hold things together.

04:28Just get that scrambled up in there.

04:31Then we're just going to stuff the zucchini.

04:33Just pack it all in.

04:35You could do this same meal with just like taco-flavored meat,

04:39any kind of just seasoned ground beef.

04:41You could have really done whatever flavor profile you want

04:44and whatever kind of cheese, like creamy cheese you want.

04:47It's really good.

04:48Can you believe it's a $10 dinner?

04:50Yeah, it's beautiful.

04:52It makes me so happy.

04:54Okay, so that's it.

04:56We messed the gist of the dinner.

04:58However, for just added flavor, this is just a bonus.

05:01You don't even have to do this, okay?

05:02You could save this 50 cents.

05:04But I'm going to, because one of my favorite things.

05:07Why?

05:09One of my least favorite things is when my can opener walks away.

05:13Okay, so one of my favorite things is like Middle Eastern stuffed squash.

05:18And it has this like kind of sweet spice tomato sauce.

05:22And they cook it in this super thin tomato-y liquid.

05:26And that's what I'm doing.

05:27I'm going to add a can of water.

05:33Okay, so just that.

05:34The tomato sauce has some flavor in it.

05:36Just a little pinch of allspice.

05:38Now do not go out and buy this, okay?

05:40It's probably somewhere in the back of your spice cabinet.

05:42Let's go ahead and do some more pepper.

05:46Just want to have something kind of flavorful for that zucchini to cook in.

05:49Okay, that's good.

05:51Now I'm just going to pour this into the bottom, not over the zucchini really,

05:54but just kind of in the bottom for it to cook in.

05:56Just want enough just to like go up about a half inch.

06:01This is the part that you could make ahead.

06:03You know, you could just leave it, and then when you get home from work,

06:04pop it in the oven.

06:06But we're already at work.

06:07So covered, I'm thinking probably 30, 40 minutes.

06:14Essentially, we did our shopping.

06:16We spent $10, $11.

06:19And dinner's like already almost done, and it was like less than an hour.

06:24All right, it's been like 35 minutes.

06:26Just uncovered it.

06:28Going to let it finish.

06:30While we finish our pasta, I say we bring this to a simmer,

06:35and then all we do is stir in our pasta.

06:39The pasta is going to absorb the liquid.

06:41It's going to get really creamy, no extra flavor needed.

06:44Could have made this a $20 dinner and picked up a decent bottle of wine from Aldi.

06:49Okay, look at the pasta, how creamy.

06:53And it says just to let it sit for a couple minutes,

06:55and it's just going to like thicken up even more.

06:58And now we'll get out.

07:05And you can take some of that sauce now and spoon it over.

07:10This is so good, and I'm so glad that I have something for my family for dinner tonight.

07:15Okay, bada boom.

07:17I wish y'all could smell it.

07:19It's so good.

07:21And then just a little spoon of the sauce.

07:24What is this, a restaurant or something?

07:26Optional ingredient, costs $0, so it doesn't count.

07:31I can make five of these plates for $10.

07:36Could you?

07:38Now you can.

07:39Wow, it's doing it again.

07:46Mmm.

07:48That zucchini is just so tender.

07:51It's just the perfect vessel for this flavorful beef mixture

07:54because it does not give you that like goat cheesy feel.

07:57It just makes it like super savory and like lightly creamy,

08:01but like it has a punch of flavor.

08:03I didn't expect it to be that flavorful.

08:06Mmm, look how the pasta's gotten all thick.

08:10That goes together.

08:12And it tastes even better knowing that I could feed this to my family for $10.

08:19Aldi for the win, hashtag not sponsored.

08:23But I could be.

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