Easy Baked Italian Zucchini

So Friday night I was getting really hungry for dinner but feeling pretty unmotivated to make it. This happens to you too, right? I was planning to reheat some leftover gluten free pasta and spaghetti sauce I had made the night before. But I wasn’t very enthused about it because I tried a new gluten free pasta this time and was not very fond of it. Lesson learned: always stick with Tinkyada brand gluten free pasta – it tastes much better!

Just as I was about to quit wasting time and get off Facebook start making dinner, someone posted a Pinterest recipe to Facebook. I clicked on it to see what it was. It immediately intrigued me. It simply said, cut a zucchini in half, add cherry tomatoes, cheese and fresh basil and bake. There were no specifics such as oven temperature or length of time to bake. I had several zucchini on their last leg in my fridge and some tomatoes not too far from that point either. I decided to give the recipe a try and this is what I came up with!

Easy Baked Italian Zucchini

My husband was taking a nap when these came out of the oven. I could not stop eating them. They are that good. Lucky for him I saved him two — which he loved! They are healthy, delicious and super easy to make! What could be better? They can be served as an appetizer or as a healthy vegetable side for a balanced meal. You can easily make how many of these you’d like based on how many people you are serving. And summer? Summer is the best time of year to make these with all the locally grown produce available – maybe even out of your own garden! Preparing these in season makes them taste simply incredible.

To shorten the baking time I cut each zucchini in half lengthwise then in half again making each zucchini into four lengthwise thin pieces. This ensures the zucchini cooks through at the same time the cheese melts and allows you more of the good stuff – cheese and tomatoes! Yum! I did not have cherry tomatoes on hand so I just used the garden tomatoes I did have. I also used a combination of two kinds of cheese (mozzarella and parmesan) and two spices I had on hand (Italian seasoning & garlic salt) which tasted great.

Easy Baked Italian Zucchini

• 3 zucchini
• Several garden or Roma tomatoes, this will vary based on how thinly you cut your tomatoes 
• Mozzarella cheese, I bought a block of lovely full-fat mozzarella cheese from my favorite food co-op, The Wedge, but a part-skim would work well too!
• Parmesan cheese, I often have a bag on hand from the Wedge that is already shredded, excellent tasting and imported from Italy
• Italian seasoning
• Garlic salt

Because they were so good, I ended up serving these just two days later at a family celebration for my brother and his wife who are expecting their first baby in October! We are very excited to add a new member to our family soon! As soon as they were done baking, several were retrieved from the baking sheet — the anticipation was too great to wait for lunch to be served. Everyone loved them and many requested the recipe. I also received several recipe requests after sharing the above picture on our Facebook page for Diabetes Light. Here it is. I hope you enjoy!

Blessings, light and love,

Cynthia

Please join us on our Facebook page for Diabetes Light! Come to learn, be inspired & experience community + find out when new articles post!!