Stuffed Summer Vegetables

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add the diced onion and celery and cook until they are softened and fragrant, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the tops off of the tomatoes. Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds, flesh, and juice from the inside of the tomatoes (chopping up any really big chunks of flesh) and set the flesh aside in a bowl. Set the tomato shells aside as well.

Similarly, use a spoon to hollow out the zucchini halves. Chop the insides of the zucchini into a fine dice and set aside.

When the onions and celery are softened, add the minced garlic, the chopped zucchini insides, and the tomato insides to the pan. Cook for about 5 more minutes or until the zucchini is tender.

Add the cooked rice, parsley, basil, capers, salt and pepper and leave the pan on the heat just long enough to heat everything through. Then remove it from the heat.

Place the hollowed tomatoes and the hollowed zucchini into a baking dish. Stuff each of the vegetables with about 2 heaping tablespoons of the rice mixture.

Combine the cheese and breadcrumbs in a small bowl. Top each stuffed vegetable with a tablespoon of the cheese and bread crumb mix and drizzle everything with olive oil.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are softened and the breadcrumbs are browned.