Caprese Zucchini Boats

Zucchini is a wonderful vegetable. The peel is high in dietary fiber, which is great for keeping you regular. Its also handy at helping to moderately lower cholesterol and since its very low in calories (only about 15 cals per 100g!!), its a great food to eat to help promote weight loss. Zucchini is also high in folate, which is great for pregnant women, since folate is very important for the brain and spine of growing babies. Its also contains lots of Vitamin A, and Vitamin C, which is an excellent anti-oxidant. Vitamin C is also great at helping to boost the immune system. Now you might say that zucchini is bland, and squishy and boring, but that'e one of the best parts about it! Since its so bland, it will take on the flavour of whatever you put on it! We love to make zucchini "boats" by hollowing out the middle, chopping it up, adding some other delicious elements and voila! You have a fancy-shmancy side dish to any meal! Between my husband and I we usually split one zucchini, but you can easily cut it in half once cooked! We do many variations, and you can certainly try adding different spice combinations or other vegetables, but our all time favourite is a 'Caprese Zucchini Boat', we call it that because its modeled after a Caprese salad.

Caprese Zucchini Boat
This recipe is good for 2-4 people

1 whole zucchini
1 small mushroom
1/2 small tomato, chopped into small pieces
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 fresh basil leaves (or about 1/2 - 1 tsp dried basil)
pepper to taste

Cheese - grated (my favourite is goat cheese, but if you want to stay true to Caprese salads, you should use fresh mozzarella, my husband however prefers smoked Gouda, but whatever cheese you like will be wonderful)

1) Cut the ends off of the zucchini, then cut the zucchini in half lengthwise
2) Using a small spoon, hollow out the centre of the zucchini
3) Finely chop the insides of the zucchini, the mushroom, the tomato and the basil, mince garlic and mix all together, with pepper as desired.
4) Stuff mixed vegetables and spices into hollowed out zucchinis.
5) Top each zucchini boat with cheese as desired
6) Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes, or until zucchini is soft and cheese has fully melted. (NB: I sometimes nuke my zucchinis for about 2-3 minutes before stuffing them to cut down on my cook time if I`m in a rush, - which lets be honest happens to the best of us! I then bake for only about 10 minutes)

These are our zucchini boats, mine is inside the tinfoil only because my wonderful husband has an issue with goat cheese and doesn't want it anywhere near his dinner.