Cheesy Marinara Zucchini Boats
Summertime. While we may not always love all of the heat, it seems like gardens and vegetables do. Zucchni is a summer squash varietal that's technically a fruit, but we don't care what you want to call something as delicious and versatile as this food is! Comprised almost 95% of water, zucchini is a low calorie snack that's rich in Vitamin B6 - making it the perfect accompaniment to any healthy eating routine!
There are so many reason to love zucchini - a big one is because of it's versatility. You can eat it raw, you can steam it, you can fry it, you can bake it. You can let it be a supporting character in a dish or you can make it the star. And it's relatively mild flavor lends itself to being enjoyed alongside other flavors. Today, we've taken zucchini and made it the vessel for a delicious marinara and cheese mixture. These zucchini boats make for an awesome, easy dinner for vegetarians (or for the cheese lover who doesn’t mind going meatless every once in awhile!). Add a carb serving, and you’ve got a complete meal in just over 30 minutes!
Our recipe below is written for 1 serving for convenience, but you can easily adapt this recipe to feed 4 or make 4 servings at a time! The cooking instructions are the same whether you are cooking for 1 or for 4. Keep in mind you may need a larger bowl or baking tray to mix and cook all ingredients for 4 together; or you'll need to mix and cook in batches. Ingredients for 4 can be found at the bottom of this recipe.
Ingredients for 1:
- 3-4 oz. low-fat cottage cheese*
- 1/2-1 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded*
- 1 medium zucchini
- 1/4 C. Pomi tomato sauce
- 1 (heaping) tsp of Italian seasoning
- To taste: sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and red pepper flakes
- Fresh basil
*MRC Clients following More menu: use 3 oz. cottage cheese + 1/2 oz. mozzarella. MRC Clients following More Level 1 menu: use 4 oz. cottage cheese + 1 oz. mozzarella
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Wash and half the zucchini lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and insides, leaving a 1/4-1/2 inch border in tact.. Spray zucchini halves with olive oil spray and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Place on an aluminum foil covered cooking sheet and cook for 10 minutes.
- While zucchini is cooking, mix the cottage cheese, Pomi, and Italian seasoning together in a bowl. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste. Remove zucchini from the oven and fill the boats, splittin the mixture evenly between the zucchini halves. Top with the shredded mozzarella and bake for 15-20 minutes. Before pulling out of the oven, set the broiler on high and broil fro 2-3 minutes, until the mozzarella begins to brown in places.
- Remove from the oven and top with fresh basil, crushed red pepper flakes, and more freshly ground black pepper. Let cook for just a few minutes before diving in!
Variations and tips:
- If you're looking for a less liquidy filling, then you can strain your cottage cheese through a mesh strainer or cheese cloth prior to combining it with the other ingredients
- If you're not a fan of cottage cheese, you can swap cottage cheese for part-skim Ricotta cheese or do a mix of half and half
- If you prefer to have a meat protein with this, you could decrease the cottage cheese by an ounce and swap in an ounce of protein (pieces of grilled chicken breast would be great here!)
Makes 1 Serving | Serving Size: 2 zucchini halves | One ServingReplaces: 1 protein, 1 vegetable
Ingredients for 4:
- 12-16 oz. low-fat cottage cheese*
- 2-4 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded*
- 4 medium zucchini
- 1 C. Pomi tomato sauce
- 1 (heaping) TBSP of Italian seasoning
- To taste: sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and red pepper flakes
- Fresh basil
*MRC Clients following More menu: use 12 oz. cottage cheese + 2 oz. mozzarella. MRC Clients following More Level 1 menu: use 16 oz. cottage cheese + 4 oz. mozzarella
