Veggie Stuffed Zucchini Boats

What a great and different way to cook with zucchini!  These zucchini boats are stuffed with a lot of great veggies and topped with a golden panko parmesan crust!  If you are craving pizza but not craving the calories, give these a try! They seriously taste like pizza! They work great as a side dish or you can add ground chicken or pork sausage to it and make it a delicious entree!  We will be making these a lot this summer when the zucchini in our garden grows.  This recipe serves 4 as a side dish.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium zucchini (6-8" in length)
• 1/2 c mushrooms, rough chopped
• 6-10 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered (depending on size)
• 1/4 c jarred artichokes, rough chopped
• 1/2 small yellow onion, medium diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 T olive oil
• 1 T fresh jalapeño, finely diced (optional)
• 1/2 tea red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tea dried parsley
• 1/2 tea italian seasoning
• 6 fresh basil leaves (4 chopped, 2 ribboned)
• 1/4 c panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 c parmesan cheese
• 1 T olive oil
• S&P

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit

- Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out pulp and seeds using a spoon.  Leave some of the meat in the zucchini (~1/4").  Reserve the zucchini pulp and chop roughly.  Set aside.

- In a medium saute pan, add 2 T of the olive oil over medium heat.  Saute the mushrooms, tomatoes, onion, and jalapeño for 5 minutes.

- Add the garlic, zucchini, artichokes, red pepper flakes, parsley and italian seasonings and saute for another 2-3 minutes. 

- Add 3 of the chopped basil leaves to the saute pan and remove from the heat.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes.  

- In the meantime, in a small mixing bowl, combine the panko bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, 1 T olive oil, 1 chopped basil leaf and 1/2 tea pepper and stir until olive oil is evenly distributed throughout cheese and panko.  Add 2 T of this mixture to the veggies and stir.

- In a small baking dish , place zucchini boats and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.

- Spoon veggie mixture into zucchini boats.

- Top veggie boats with panko parmesan mixture.

- Cover with foil and bake for ~18-20 minutes.

- Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes until panko parmesan mixture is golden brown and crispy.

- Let sit for 5 minutes and garnish with extra basil before serving.

Finished Veggie Stuffed  Zucchini Boats

Zucchini Boats ready to be baked!

Asian Toasted Sesame Vegetable Salad

A veggie salad (with optional Quinoa) that pairs perfectly with anything asian inspired.  If you include the Quinoa it is a great alternative to fried rice!  Packed with lots of veggies and a light Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing.  Nothing boring about this dish! This recipe serves four as a side dish.

Ingredients:

• Veggies
• 1/3 c sugar snap peas, halved
• 1/3 c fresh green beans, in thirds (or use frozen or canned)
• 1/4 c fresh carrots sliced to ~ 1/4"
• 1/2 c fresh chopped broccoli (can sub frozen)
• 1/4 c red bell pepper, large dice
• 1 T red onion, finely diced
• 2 green onion, chopped
• 1/2 c purple or green cabbage, sliced finely
• 2 T chopped cilantro
• Dressing
• 1/3 c KRAFT Lite Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing
• 1 T sriracha
• 1 T hoisin
• 1 1/2 T rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 T low sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 tea sesame oil
• 1/2 T sugar
• 1 T sesame seeds
• 2 T slivered almonds
• Quinoa (optional)
• 1/2 cup dried quinoa - cooked to package instructions.  I like to use low sodium chicken stock instead of water and add black pepper and 1 clove fresh garlic.

Directions:
- Steam sugar snap peas, carrots, broccoli and green beans (if using fresh) until slightly tender using a steamer basket in a pan over medium high heat for ~5-10 mins.  You want a little bit of a crunch in the salad but not raw.  If using frozen or canned of any of the above, thaw or drain before adding to salad.
- Combine steamed veggies with raw veggies (red bell pepper, red onion, green onion and cabbage in a medium bowl.
- Whisk together dressing ingredients in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved
- Add dressing to veggies and toss until combined.
- If adding quinoa, add the cooked quinoa to the veggies and dressing
- Stir and salt and pepper to taste.  Serve at room temperature.

Finished Salad

Raw veggies mixed together

Chinese 5-Spice Glazed Chicken

A chicken dish that is slightly sweet, slighty spicy and packs a lot of flavor!  The key ingredient in this dish is Chinese Five Spice Powder.  Very yummy and powerful spices!  I served this tonight with my Asian Toasted Seasame Veggie Salad w/Quinoa (recipe to come shortly).

Ingredients:

Dry Rub:

• 1 tea salt
• 1 tea black pepper
• 1 tea sugar
• 1 tea onion powder
• 1 tea cayenne (optional)
• 1 1/2 tea chinese 5-spice
• 2 tea garlic powder
• 2 tea ginger powder

Glaze:

• 1 T low sodium soy sauce
• 1 T hoisin 
• 1 T sriracha
• 1 T rice wine vinegar
• 1 T sugar
• 3 T water
• 2 T sweet chili sauce
• 1 tea seasame oil

Chicken:

• You have a ton of options here.  You need around 1/2 chicken total, skin on and bone in.  The pieces you choose are totally up to you.  You can do all breast, all thigh, all leg, all wing.  You can also do any combination of the above (i.e. 2 and 2, 3 and 1, 2-1-1).  The choice is totally up to what you like.  In the pictures, we cut up a whole chicken and kept the breast and wing together (called an airline breast) and kept the thigh and leg together.  

Directions:

• Sprinkle the dry rub under the skin of the chicken and also on the skin.  Let sit and marinade at room temp for ~1 hour (any longer than that and stick it in the refrigerator and take out 20-30 minutes before you grill).
• Mix glaze together separately to dissolve sugar
• Grill chicken over medium until skin gets crispy and chicken is almost cooked through, ~15 mins. (flipping chicken every 5 minutes)
• Brush glaze onto top of chicken and let cook another 3-4 minutes.  Flip the chicken and repeat this process.  Repeat 1 more time for a total of 3 glazes.  Keep an eye on the chicken during the glazing process because the sugars in the glaze can burn.  A little black is ok (see pictures) because you are going to remove the skin.
• Let chicken sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.  
• To serve, remove skin and slice the breast into 1/2"-3/4" slices.  The other pieces are served well bone in, skin off - but you can cut the meat off the bone if you prefer.