Stuffed Tomatoes

This recipe came together easily enough. I was supposed to make stuffed portobello mushrooms for dinner but after seeing an iridologist earlier in the day for some minor health issues, she told me to eliminate mushrooms. So I had to come up with plan B. Stuffed tomatoes! Why? Because they were on my counter. And actually, they were really great because I used ground chicken and the tomatoes added a lot of juice. John really enjoyed them.

I essentially used my meatball recipe but subbed the chicken for the beef and because the iridologist also told me to eliminate bread, I subbed soaked oatmeal for breadcrumbs. It worked well for this. I would definitely do this for meatballs and tomato sauce too.

I had about a dozen medium sized tomatoes and I still had a little stuffing left over, which I made into a patty and grilled. It just depends on the size of your tomatoes. I'm going to say 12 for this recipe and if you have left over stuffing, grill it for lunch the next day.

Stuffed Tomatoes

12 medium sized tomatoes
1 pound ground chicken
1/2 cup oatmeal, soaked in milk for 20 minutes
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped herbs (I used a combination of cilantro, mint and basil)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
olive oil to drizzle over tomatoes

Preheat oven to 400F.
Slice off the tops of the tomatoes and with a small spoon, scoop out the seeds and some of the membranes. Sprinkle the inside with salt and turn upside down on paper towels.
In the meantime, in a bowl combine the ground chicken, soaked oatmeal, egg, parmesan cheese, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper. Stuff the tomatoes to the top and place in a greased oven proof baking dish. Drizzle the tops of the tomatoes with more olive oil. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes until the tops are golden. Serve.

m xo