Stuffed, Marinated Mushrooms {Paleo}

As always, I am LOVING Lexi's Clean Kitchen recipes. I make one of her recipes at least once a week as I'm learning the Paleo lifestyle. Last night, I made Stuffed Mushrooms ~ and these little guys were PACKED with flavor. I was pleasantly surprised, because I was a little skeptical on this one. It just didn't sound like it would taste like much. I was mistaken. Ohhh, was I mistaken. 

I think the trick to these is the marination. {Marination?! I'm making that a word, and I'm making it mean what I want it to mean} - I didn't even get those suckers in the fridge for very long, but it makes a world of difference, especially for these hefty mushroom caps. 

Stuffed Marinated Mushrooms {Paleo}

original recipe from www.lexiscleankitchen.com

ingredients:

1 package Portobello mushrooms {containing at least 4-6 mushrooms}

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 Tbl EVOO

3 chicken sausage, casing removed and diced {I used organic, sun-dried tomato flavor}

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 yellow onion, finely diced

2 cups baby spinach leaves

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

Sea salt & ground pepper to taste

instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Separate the stems from the mushrooms and reserve for later
3. In a small bowl, whisk together 1 Tbl EVOO and vinegar. Pour the mixture into a large ziplock bag and add the mushroom tops. Marinate in the fridge for up to 30 minutes
4. Once marinated, put the mushrooms on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes
5. While cooking, chop mushroom stems, mince garlic, and chop onion. Heat remaining oil and add garlic, chopped mushroom stems and onion and let cook for 5 minutes, mixing often
6. Add in sausage, spinach, and tomatoes; let cook for an additional 5 minutes
7. After the mushrooms have cooked, remove them from the oven and gently pour off any liquid. Spoon in the filling into each mushroom cap
8. Serve and enjoy!

notes:

• We could only get a package of mushrooms that were kind of small. It worked ok, a small portion was 3 mushrooms. I would probably try to buy larger mushrooms next time.
• The sun dried tomato sausage was a delight. The original recipe calls for spicy sausage, which also would work well I think, but I think I will experiment with different flavors of chicken sausage. It's such a great ingredient!
• This could be used for mini mushrooms, too, to be served app-style. The sausage would just have to be broke up significantly more than it does with the larger mushroom caps
• The original recipe also called for basil. I might try that next time, just chopped and sprinkled on top. 
• For a non-paleo version, sprinkled with breadcrumbs and a little grated parm then broiled for a minute at the end would be yum!