The other evening I made cheeseburger zucchini boats for dinner (inspired by a pic I saw on Pinterest), and boy were they delicious!! Seriously good! I actually fed the boys deconstructed cheeseburger zucchini boats (along with a quarter of a whole grain English muffin and strawberry applesauce), and they both had clean plate club! They had to eat their meat and zucchini before they could have seconds of the English muffin and applesauce, and they had no problem eating everything. |
Bob was actually out for the evening, so I went ahead and made two whole zucchinis, which meant that I had enough for a nice leftover lunch the next day. I added some reheated steamed veggies to my lunch and it was super filling! This meal was definitely a winner, and I will be making it again. I think Bob will like it, too! This was another one of those meals that illustrates to me how easy "clean" eating is. This all came together so quickly for me and used a small number of fairly inexpensive ingredients. |
- 1 lb. pckg ground beef (I used 85% lean and drained off the grease)
- Sprinkle of Mrs. Dash
- Sprinkle of garlic powder
- Sprinkle of McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning
- Salt & Pepper
- Shredded cheese (I used reduced-fat cheddar)
- 2 zucchinis
Directions
- First thing to do is preheat the oven to 400 degrees
- Cut your zucchinis in half length-wise. Then take a paring knife and cut out a wedge of the center of each half (basically, make your "boat")
- Put your zucchinis on a baking sheet that is lined with aluminum foil (for easy clean-up) and pop them in the oven to cook while you're doing your meat
- Brown your meat in a skillet over medium-ish heat
- Sprinkle in all of your seasonings. I say, you can't have too much flavor, so be generous with your sprinkling. Add whatever seasonings you prefer!
- Once your meat is cooked through, pull your zucchinis out of the oven and put your skillet on a hot pan holder next to your baking sheet.
- At this point, I pulled meat out for the boys' plates, topped the meat with the shredded cheddar, and cut off some zucchini and added it to their plates.
- Fill your zucchinis with your cooked meat and then top with as much shredded cheese as you please
- Pop it all back in the oven to bake just until the cheese is melted and starting to bubble
This worked for me! The zucchini cooked enough to not be raw but still had a nice density and bite to it. It complemented the cheesy ground beef perfectly!
You can eat this as your entire meal, or you can serve it with a side of steamed veggies. It also paired very nicely with my leftover steamed broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower. The ground beef and cauliflower was especially good together!
Enjoy!