banana peppers?

So, I started growing banana peppers because my husband likes them.  Turns out, he only likes them if they are pickled... and I don't know how to pickle.  This presented a challenge- what the heck am I gonna do with all of these banana peppers???  A quick search on allrecipes turned up only 3 recipes that were tolerable.  I printed one off but made so many adustments that I can't even recommend the original but MY recipe turned out delish!!!  I shocked myself and my hubby with how good it was. 

Here we go:
8-10 banana peppers
4 morningstar farms sausage patties
1/2 zucchini
1/4 onion
a large handful of walnuts
1 stalk of celery
1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
around 3/4 cup of parmesean
dash of parsley, salt, pepper
fresh basil

Chop tops of banana peppers off and de-seed and de-rib.  Bring a pot of water to rolling boil, add peppers and boil for 5 minutes.  (They should still be firm.)

Meanwhile, finely chop zucchini, onion, walnuts and celery.  Saute in butter  with parsley and basil.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  I use my Lodge Logic cast iron skillet for this. 

Warm up the fake sausage patties in the same pan and cut them into tiny pieces after they're crispy. 

In a large bowl, add the sausage to the sauteed veggie mixture along with the can of tomato sauce and some parmesean cheese.  Mix together well.

Stuff the peppers with this mixture.  (I always use a ziplock bag with the corner cut off to squeeze it in.)  You will have some of the mixture left over. 

Put the peppers back in the cast iron pan.  (cast iron= less dishes with this recipe!)  Pour the remaining mixture over the peppers and sprinkle all of it with as much parmesean as you desire.

Bake for 20 minutes at 400.  I turned my oven up to broil at the very end to get the cheese nice and brown. 

This recipe is vegetarian, yet hearty.  It was filling enough for my meat-loving husband...I think he was a little skeptical when I told him what I was making.  The walnuts were the BEST part in my opinion.  SOOOO good!