Beef and Vegetable Stuffed Bread

This is a super easy, super versatile dinner dish. You can change the veggies and cheese to anything you want or have around the house.

Ingredients:

1 (1 pound) loaf of uncut bread, like Italian or French (any combo of breads work here-I had ½ mini-Italian loaf and 2 6 inch chunks of French bread and used both)
1 pound ground chuck
1 cup onion, coarsely chopped
½ cup zucchini, coarsely chopped
1 cup mushrooms, coarsely chopped
½ cup fresh tomato, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon dry onion soup mix
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup cheddar cheese, cut into ¼ inch cubes

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Cut the loaf of bread horizontally into two long halves. Scoop out some of the soft interior of the bread, leaving a shell about ½ inch thick on all sides. Place the hollowed out bread cut side up on the baking sheet. Save the torn out bread in the freezer for homemade bread crumbs or croutons another time.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Crumble in the ground chuck and cook until almost browned through. Add the onions, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, salt, pepper, onion soup mix and Worcestershire and cook until the veggies are tender.

Toss the cubed cheese into the beef and veggie mixture and pile into each piece of bread. Smooth over the top to make sure the filling goes all the way to the edges of the bread. If you have extra leftover filling, just save it in a container for a sandwich another day. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing into serving size pieces.