I don’t know if it was trendy in the 1980s or if it was a particular quirk of my mother's, but we ate many a meal of stuffed vegetables during my childhood. No hollow or overgrown vegetable was safe. Peppers of all colors, giant zucchini, tomatoes and even, occasionally, avocados were filled with a medley of rice, protein and onion, then draped with shredded cheese and run under the broiler.

I’m fairly convinced that the reason my mom liked this particular style of dinner prep so much was that it gave her the opportunity to stretch a pound of meat across several meals and use up all manner of odds and ends from the crisper. I also suspect that she tucked more vegetables into the filling than I was aware of as a small child.

Many years have passed since I groaned at the idea of a meal of stuffed peppers or summer squash. In fact, now that I’m in charge of the grocery budget and my refrigerator’s ecosystem, I can see the many virtues in this style of cooking.

Right now, we’ve got a world of winter squash available for the stuffing. I like Sunny Anderson’s Italian Sausage-Stuffed Acorn Squash, but truly, just about any combination of savory veg, meat (or crumbled tofu), and grain works wonders. This weekend, instead of clearing out the fridge with a big pot of soup, finish off those holiday tidbits by sauteing them and stuffing them into acorn squash. Tell your family that the Weekender told you to do it!