Stuffed Mushrooms

This meal is AMAZING. It has no gluten (if that is something you are concerned with), but more importantly, it is an easy way to sneak in LOTS of veggies! That said, I will admit it took a couple times to make this recipe “easy” but it was so worth getting the hang of. Now it is a go-to for lunch, dinner, or to bring to parties! I'd say it takes about an hour for prep/cook/clean up, and is so delicious I usually double the recipe which doesn’t really increase the time!

Ingredients:

20 Large Fresh Mushrooms (Use the White Stuffer Mushrooms)

A Little Olive Oil (Tsp or so)

8oz Sweet Italian Sausage (I have also mixed Sweet Italian with Hot Italian and that was awesome)

1 Large Clove Garlic, crushed and finely minced (likely with a garlic press)

2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley (or 1.5 Teaspoon dried parsley)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

1/4 cup water

Directions

1- Preheat oven to 350 F

2- Wash mushrooms and remove the stems. Arrange the mushroom caps in a baking pan (I use glass pyrex) and take all the stems and chop them finely (I personally save a lot of time using the chopper I listed at the bottom).

3- Heat a little olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add chopped mushroom stems and sausage (if you are using individual Italian sausages, remove the outer casings before cooking). When sausage is no longer pink, add garlic and cook for another minute.

4- Add parsley and Parmesan Cheese to sausage mixture. Let cool so that it is touchable.

5- Fill the mushroom caps with the sausage mixture. This is the part that will take a minute to get good at. Don’t try to get the sausage to stick together in a neat ball before putting in the mushroom cap to fit as much as you can in it. Also don’t try picking up the mushroom to put the sausage in it, it will just make a mess. Simple just grab some between your fingers and place it on the mushroom top. Some will fall out, its okay. It might seem “loose” but when you bake it, it will all come together. When you run out of mushrooms to stuff, you might have extra sausage. This is when i go back through and “top off” or just kinda stuff extra into each one, however, its also great on its own or on a salad, so extra isn’t bad.

6- Add 1/4 cup water to the baking pan with the mushroom caps stuffed.

7- Bake in oven for about 20 minutes.

8- East and enjoy!

Useful things:

*This is the newer model of the garlic press the I purchased in 2014. It works SO WELL and saves so much time.

*This is the chopper I use. I have bought about 5 different ones that all fail or break (pretty quickly) over the course of about 3 years. However, this Progressive brand my Mother-In-Law found at an Amish Market and hot damn. It saves me hours a week in chopping. It takes a minute to clean but when you need to chop cups of something, it doesn’t matter, it still saves so much time. I have only used it for about 3 months, but it hasn’t broken or dulled yet!