I’m not sure if it’s the same on your household, but spaghetti is a dinner staple around here. It is fairly quick and easy to make, especially if you purchase easy, pre-packaged ingredients like I do for busy week nights, and it’s one of the few meals everyone can agree to eat with no complaints. The only downside to spaghetti, for me anyway, are the carbs! I am always looking for little ways to cut back on carbs and sneak healthy veggies into our recipes, so a couple of weeks ago as I was prepping for yet another spaghetti night, it came to me- Spaghetti zucchini boats!
Here’s the basics for this recipe, but it is super versatile and can be changed up to your liking whether that is to add more veggies into your meat sauce, or sub the ground beef for ground turkey etc.
Ingredients:
- Zucchini (1 per person)
- 1 lb. Ground beef
- Onion (chopped, ¼ cup)
- Green bell pepper (chopped, ¼ cup)
- Tomato (diced, ½ cup)
- Marinara sauce (I like to use the H-E-B or Central Market Organics brands, but there are tons to choose from or you can make your own from scratch)
- Extra virgin olive oil (1 tbsp)
- Shredded cheese (mozzarella or pizza blend works great)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and rinse/prep all your veggies.
- Take the zucchini and slice them in half long ways, then take a spoon and hollow out the center by scraping out some of the seeded area.
- Place the zucchini on a foil-lined baking sheet with the skin side down and drizzle with EVOO and salt and pepper to taste and roast for about 20 minutes.
- While the zucchini is in the oven, brown the ground beef (chicken or turkey work as well) and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- After a few minutes, add in your chopped veggies and diced tomato and mix into ground beef until cooked through and the onions are semi-transparent.
- Stir in the marinara sauce into the mixture and let it sit on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes or until heated through completely.
- Take your zucchini boats out of the oven once they are nice and roasted, then fill each boat with ¼ cup to ½ cup of your ground beef mixture.
- Sprinkle with cheese to your desired taste and bake for another 5-10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and ENJOY!
*Mom Tip: I always boil some spaghetti or pasta noodles while cooking my meat sauce and serve my little one and hubby that with the ground beef mixture on top.
And Voila! There you have it- a quick, tasty and healthy meal everyone in the family can enjoy, including the more carb conscious members of the family.
