Hello friends!

Today San Diego was gorgeous and hot. Perfect day for hitting the beach or playing in the yard but not necessarily for cooking in the kitchen! So tonight’s dinner needed to be light and super flavorful. If the hubs had his choice he’d have steak, rice or buttered pasta all day long. Well, lucky for him I have his health (and my sanity) in mind. So I did what I do best – compromised. I took lean ground beef and made it sassy. I’ve made a version of this recipe so many ways I’ve lost count. You can stuff zucchini, bell peppers, spaghetti squash, tomatoes…basically anything. Today the delish zucchini won the vegetable rock-paper-scissors test. The seasoning is similar to when you make ground beef tacos and we kick up the muffins with mild green chilis and corn to really drive home the fiesta. Well I’m starving so let’s get cooking.

Ingredients

• 3 med to large zucchini
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 can tomato sauce (I originally had a 15 oz can and ended up using about half)
• 1/2 small yellow onion
• Seasonings: S&P, garlic powder, chili powder, & cumin
• 1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix
• 1/3 c milk
• 1 egg
• 1 small can mild green chilis
• 1 small can kernel corn
• Shredded cheddar cheese

Fiesta Directions

Since we are taking this delish dinner a “Fiesta” route it’s only appropriate to pour yourself a margarita or some tequila for sipping. Now now, no tequila shots just yet. We have to play with fire so keep it safe until the dinner is done and then go nuts.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Wash your zucchini and slice in half. Slice a thin layer off the backside so you can lay it down flat on a baking sheet (if your baking sheet isn’t super new, either spray with cooking spray or lay down alum foil). Using a spoon gently scoop out most of the filling and set aside. Add some S&P to each “boat” and place on a baking sheet. Lightly chop up the filling you set aside.

Next dice your onion. Heat a sauce pan over Med-Hi heat and hit it with a couple of swirls of olive oil.

Add your onion and stir a bit. Add S&P, 1 t Garlic Powder, 1 t Chili Powder and 1 t of Cumin. When the onions just start to get translucent add in your ground beef and reserved zucchini insides. 

Cook until all the pink is gone (internal temp needs to hit 165 degrees F) and add in 1 cup tomato sauce and stir.

Let it cook for a few minutes to just come together. Give her a taste and increase any of the seasonings that you’d like. We tend to have a heavy hand with seasonings and really at this point I usually add a ton of hot sauce but I dialed it down for our blog friends. Feel free to add what you like.

Lastly, turn off the heat and stir in about 1/4 cup of bread crumbs just to keep the beef together. Usually that’s all you need just to keep the beefy deliciousness together to stay in the boats.

Now fill each zucchini boat with the ground beef. Bake in oven for 15 min. Remove, sprinkle with shredded cheddar and bake for about 3 min more. Internal temp needs to stay at 165 and the zucchini will be just tender enough to eat but still firm to hold the filling. 

While those are baking let’s make the muffins!

In a bowl add in the muffin mix, 1/3 c milk, 1 egg, 3 heaping tablespoons of corn, 2 heaping tablespoons of mild green chilis and 2 tablespoons of shredded cheese (we had mozzarella and cheddar and used both). Whisk until combined – it will be lumpy and that’s totally good.

Fill cupcake paper lined cupcake pan 2/3 full and bake 15 min. Watch these closely as they’ll go from not done to “browning on top” very quickly. Ours took exactly 15 min.

We served our Fiesta zucchini boats and muffins with a bit of tomatillo salsa and sour cream. Oh man. I need to quit writing and get to eating. Enjoy our Fiesta twist on a healthy and fun meal.

xoxo
Shawna