Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats

It’s amazing how much time goes by during the work day when you are starring at your computer screen, moving figures and text boxes around one pixel at a time in attempts to get everything fitted and sized nicely. This is how poster presentations are done in my world, in preparation for the upcoming research conference my lab is attending. And it’s a royal pain in my bottom. The scariest part is that even after making it pretty, my PI can undo everything by telling me to add one simple sentence, and thus offsetting everything. The horror! I feel like a magician by the end of it all because I will have more than once uttered the phrase, “There’s no way it is going to work”, and yet there it is in front of me. But for now I await the edits of destruction.

While I pull out my hair and eat plentiful amounts of dark chocolate covered mini pretzels (the most recent Trader Joe’s lab-obsession), I want you to sit back and enjoy a good healthy meal. How about some zucchini stuffed with Italian turkey sausage? I cannot be alone in still experiencing 98 degree weather despite the name of the month stated on the calendar, which means some of you probably still have some zucchini around from your garden (of which I am jealous). If not, it’s a good thing they invented a thing called the grocery store ;-).

One year ago: Beermosa

SAUSAGE STUFFED ZUCCHINI BOATS

Serves 4-8

Ingredients:

4 (31 oz total) medium zucchini

1-1/4 cups  marinara sauce

14 oz lean Italian chicken sausage (I used turkey)

1 tsp oil

1/2 small onion, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup diced red bell pepper

1/2 cup part skim shredded Mozzarella

8 tsp grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. And preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and using a spoon or melon baller, scoop out flesh, leaving 1/4″ thick. Chop the scooped out flesh of the zucchini in small pieces and set aside. Drop zucchini halves in boiling water and cook 1 minute. Remove from water.
3. Place 1/4 cup of sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 12″ baking dish, and place zucchini halves cut side up.
4. In a large saute pan, brown sausage, breaking up as it cooks into smaller pieces until browned; set aside. Heat oil and add onion, garlic and bell pepper. Cook on a medium-low heat for about 2-3 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add chopped zucchini, season with salt and pepper and cook about 2-3 minutes. Combine with sausage and cook a few more minutes.
5. Using a spoon, fill each hollowed zucchini with 1/3 cup cooked sausage, pressing firmly. Top each with 2 tablespoons each of sauce, 1 tablespoon each of shredded Mozzarella cheese and 1 teaspoon each of Parmesan cheese.
6. Cover with foil and bake 35 minutes until cheese is melted and zucchini is cooked through.

Source: Gina’s Skinny Taste