This is a happy little bowl of food! Photo by madmolecule on Flickr.

I will let you guys in on a little bit o’ backstory before we dig into the post…I am a shamefully horrible cook. I used to think I’d be like Martha Stewart, a doting baker of some sort. When I was 13-years-old I was creating my own recipe books, planning my future for when I would make all of these amazing things (and have amazing dinner parties). But I’ve grown to realize that I am really unlucky when it comes to cooking. I overcook or undercook just about everything. I leave out ingrediants (ever had cookies without sugar? I have), I set the toast over on fire (I actually did this)…I’m just horrible at the entire process. While trying to make Christmas cookies one year I spilled the entire tin of sprinkles. Every detail goes wrong!

So, aside from not being good at making things, I’m a frugal gal. This means that I like to find simple recipes that won’t cost a million buckaroos to buy the ingredients for. And that’s where cucumbers come into play. (The backstory is now over. *Bow*)

I was watching a cooking show, as I am guilty of doing far too often, and there was a chef dude (probably not his proper title) making these cool cucumber things. They were stuffed cucumbers, rather. He would chop the cucumber into pretty thick slabs, then use a cookie cutter with a scalloped edge to take the skin off the cucumber rounds. Then a melon baller was used to scoop out the middle. But he stuffed it with crab stuff and that’s when I tuned out, because it didn’t sound good to me. Yuck. But I still like the idea of stuffed cucumbers – I happen to love cucumber sandwiches.

Stuffed cucumbers galore. Photo by norwichnuts on Flickr.

As I look online, I see recipes for stuffed cucumbers with brown rice, tuna, shrimp mixtures, mayo and tomatoes, cream cheese with paprika and lemon juice…all sorts of fillings that do not sound appetitizing to me.

The Food Network has pictures that look good of stuffed cucumber slices, but I’m not sure how much I’d like the lox and cream cheese filling. Plus, the appeal of this was that it’d be a cute thing that’d be easy to make. Buying smoked salmon and dill and is expensive when I don’t know if i’ll even like it. And piping it to look all professh? Seems daunting!

If food is an art...then I am like...the clumsy clown! I could neve do that! Photo by fotodawg on Flickr.

I wanted to be a smart girl and find an easy way to make something new to eat…but I was feeling discouraged! That is, until I came across Carrots ‘n’ Cake and their recipe suggestion of Feta-Walnut stuffing for cucumbers. I already know that I love feta cheese and walnuts, so this is a safe bet! Still, it’s something entirely new to me and thus is the appeal.

Do you have a stuffed cucumber recipe that you’ve tried and loved? Let us know about it!

She shops smart – she’s you! Smart shopping is always stylish.