Hello everybody! Hope you're having a great day! I love having tacos and sometimes I make it work and enjoy them to celebrate the famous #tacotuesday. But this time, I celebrated this day with some Taco Zucchini Boats. They were so good and honestly not at all hard to prepare.
I feel like I always get the comment that "eating healthy" is boring and flavorless. As you know me already, I'm not the biggest fan of the word healthy, so I really like the phrase nutrient dense as a replacement.
Regarding the flavorless part, I feel like there is a broad variety of spices out there that it's easy to mix and match to find great flavors! It's a matter of experimenting and trying which spices you really like. There will be spices that you will use more often than others and that's okay too. My staple spices are:
Ground cinnamon
Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel Seasoning
Ground turmeric
Ground ginger
Garlic powder
Chili Powder
Paprika/Smoked paprika
Ground cumin
Italian Blend (I also buy them separately)
Anywhere I go, I try to have these spices handy to prepare any kind of meal. I promise, once you start experimenting you will enjoy these flavors so much. As I mentioned a few favorites you can buy and try other spices out there.
Even with minimal amount of ingredients you can create colorful and nourishing meals. For example, if you have zucchini, ground turkey, oregano, salt, pepper and strained tomatoes you can make several recipes. You can spiralize your zucchini and get some zucchini noodles with ground turkey and tomato sauce. Maybe you're into a more elaborated #recipe and prepare some zucchini ravioli with tomato sauce and ground turkey. You also have the option to prepare the zucchini boats like I did. See, minimal ingredients and different ideas!
Cooking nutrient dense foods don't always have to look the same. I've seen a lot of people that begin meal prepping and basically prepare the same recipe weekly. Even a different way to assemble your food might give a twist and make it seem more palatable than before. I enjoy preparing hipster ideas so my food looks pretty and also yummy. One of my favorite hipster recipes are the buddha bowls. Even the name makes it sound even better! These bowls don't have ingredients out of the ordinary, they just have a type of grain (which is your carb), avocado as your fat, protein of choice and some veggies. But it's the assembling of these bowls that make them seem colorful and delicious.
Now that you have some ideas on how to pump up your meal prepping game, let's make these amazingly delicious Taco Zucchini Boats!
Ingredients:
3 large zucchini- cut in half (lengthwise)
1lb flank steak- cut in strips*
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 large bell pepper- diced
1/2 small red onion- finely chopped
Enchilada sauce (to top each boat)
Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top (optional)**
Method:
Cut the zucchini in half, lengthwise. Then scrape all the inside content with a spoon. When you finish, pat them dry and place them in the oven for 15 minutes at 425ºF.
Meanwhile the zucchini boats are in the oven, spray avocado oil on a large pan and place the onion.
When translucent, incorporate the bell pepper and beef. Add in the spices and mix well until fully cooked.
When the zucchini boats are ready, assemble the beef mixture over each boat.
Pour some enchilada sauce on top and sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.
Place the boats in the oven on broil. When the cheese starts to bubble and melts remove them from the oven.
Serve with a side of veggies and a type of carb of choice!
Enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
* Feel free to substitute the beef for ground turkey, ground chicken or even shredded chicken.
**If you don't tolerate dairy, there are always dairy free cheeses to substitute.
Products I used for the #recipe:
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