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Stuffed zucchini.

This delicious dish has a lot going for it: Healthy, meatless, quick and simple to fix. Plus it looks elegant. I modified the recipe from a lovely blog called Chocolate & Zucchini.

Quantities are very forgiving to fudging and adaptation. This serves two people. Nice with sliced tomatoes and mayo on the side….

Four 6-8 inch zucchinis
Couple of cloves garlic
Herbes de Provence (pinch or so)
Couple tablespoons of pesto, or some chopped-up basil
1 cup quinoa
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 T pine nuts, toasted
Olive oil
Salt, pepper

Slice the zucchini in half the long way. With a melon baller, scoop out the seeds and innards, careful not to puncture the skin. Rub a little oil on them and set them face-down on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and bake in a fairly hot (375 F or so) oven for about 20 minutes (toaster oven works too!).

Meanwhile, sautee the scooped-out zucchini bits, garlic and herbes de Provence gently in some olive oil. In a saucepan, put 1 cup of quinoa into two cups of water and bring to a boil, then simmer about 15 minutes, until al dente.

When quinoa is ready, mix it with zucchini sautee, 1 cup ricotta cheese, pinenuts and basil/pesto. Salt and pepper to taste. Take the zucchini out, turn them so the hollow side is up, fill them with the gooey grain filling and garnish as you wish. Yum.