Daily Dinner - A Meal in a Tomato

Tonight's menu:

• Stuffed tomatoes with golden crumb topping
• Steamed green beans

This meal was so easy to make! There was a good deal of chopping and prep work, but then the food basically cooked itself. And I love a dish whose ingredients are a meal in themselves. This tomato dish included vegetables, grains, and protein and in one pretty, round little package. Fun!

The one thing I had trouble with (and of course I opted to try it instead of letting Matt do the dirty work) was hollowing out the tomatoes. I did get firm tomatoes as called for in the recipe, but it was still tricky to scoop out the insides without ripping through the tomato wall. The recipe suggested using a melon baller, which we do not own (kind of ironic I suppose, given my nickname). Maybe I'll get one and try that next time.

I will also say that this recipe had a little too much "golden crumb topping" for my taste. Not that I don't love toasted bread crumbs with olive oil, garlic, and parmesan...I most certainly do! But it kind of overpowered the stuffing, which was really good. I think if we make this dish again I'll cut the bread crumbs in half. After all, they're meant to be a topping, not the whole dish.

All in all, we rate this a 3.5 star meal...great idea, tasted good, but needs a little tweaking.