In 2019, we tried to eat less carbs but still eat delicious food because bread equals life but getting fat does not. Seriously, though, we were trying to clean up our dinners a little bit when the year started. We didn’t go crazy, we didn’t do keto, and we didn’t consciously stick to it after January. But we did keep things like Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats on our dinner menu.

Mostly because it’s delicious.

I’ve seen similar recipes online, and most try to coat the entire thing in cheese. And I love cheese. It’s part of my favorite comfort food (mozzarella sticks!). But if I’m trying to eat healthy, I’m also trying to not add fat in our dinners just for the fact that cheese is delicious. If a dinner doesn’t need cheese, it’s not getting cheese.

So these Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats have the tiniest sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese on them, literally just for presentation. These stuffed zucchinis look so much prettier with that dash of cheese.

If you’re not taking photos of these or serving them to guests, you can omit the cheese.

Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats

What You’ll Need:

• 3 zucchinis
• 8 oz. ground sausage
• 1 large onion
• 1/2 15 oz. can diced tomatoes (with the juice)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Olive oil
• 1 teaspoon grated Parmesan cheese

What You’ll Do:

Pre-heat the oven to 375.

Wash the zucchini and cut it in half. Scoop out the centers. A melon baller makes this so much easier, but if you don’t have one, a spoon works.

Rough chop the zucchini centers and set them aside into a bowl.

Lay the zucchini on a foil-lined cookie sheet, scooped side up, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Put the zucchini halves in the oven for 10 minutes.

While that’s cooking, heat the oil in the pan. Add the chopped onion and saute until the onions start to get translucent, about 10 minutes.

Add the chopped zucchini to the pan and cook for about five minutes.

Add the ground sausage, plus salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to the pan.

Finally, add the diced tomatoes (with the juice) and cook until the sausage is cooked through.

Spoon the pan mixture into the zucchini boats and bake them in the oven for 30 minutes until the zucchini is soft enough to cut through with a fork.

Sprinkle with Parmesan for presentation.

Serve warm.

Would you make these easy zucchini boats? Let us know in the comments.

What can you do with extra zucchini boats stuffing mixture?

When I make this, I actually make three zucchinis but I double the recipe for the stuffing mixture (so two onions, a full can of diced tomatoes, and a full 16 oz. of ground sausage). I use half of the stuffing mixture for the zucchini boats, then save the rest for dinner the next day.

I boil a pound of rotini pasta, heat up the zucchini boats stuffing mixture, and combine. Add a little more grated Parmesan cheese and some finishing oil and you basically have a whole different meal.

Vegetarian Stuffed Zucchini Boats Alternatives

If you’re looking for vegetarian stuffed zucchini boats alternatives, there are a few options about what you can use instead of sausage.

– Breadcrumbs. Mix breadcrumbs into the stuffing after you already cooked the vegetables.
– Couscous. Cook the couscous first, according to the package, then stir it into the stuffing after you cooked the vegetables.
– Ground eggplant. Peel and slice the eggplant. Soak it in water to remove any bitterness. Cook it in a pan for five minutes, then pulse it in a blender. Start to cook it in a pan, then add the rest of the vegetables for the stuffing.
– Mushrooms. Finely chop washed mushrooms, then pulse them in a blender. Cook them in a pan, about 10 minutes, to remove the mushroom’s water before adding the additional stuffing ingredients to the pan.
– Pastina. Follow the instructions for the couscous, but substitute pastina.
– Quinoa. Follow the instructions for the couscous, but substitute quinoa.
– Rice. Make rice in the rice cooker while the vegetables are cooking. Rough chop the rice and add it after the vegetables are cooked.

How do you make Weight Watchers stuffed zucchini boats?

These sausage stuffed zucchini boats are kind of Weight Watchers friendly, but they can be cleaned up a little bit so that they don’t use all your daily points.

One tablespoon of olive oil is 4 Weight Watchers points. So when you’re drizzling your zucchini boats with olive oil, be sure to spread 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil across the six halves. That will be 6 points total, or 1 point of oil per piece.

So, when you’re cooking the stuffing, don’t start the onions in oil. If you’re not trying to caramelize onions (which you’re not in this meal), it’s okay to swap water for oil.

Also, chicken is less points than pork, so use ground chicken sausage instead of ground pork sausage.

Chicken without the skin is zero points (but chicken sausage may be more). The zucchini and onions are zero points. You can swap fresh tomato and water for the can of diced tomatoes, to assure that’s zero points too. And there are zero point WW cheeses out there too, so your only points are coming from the oil (and maybe sausage).

Be sure to check your points before cooking and adding sausage stuffed zucchini boats to your day, though.

How do you make Keto sausage stuffed zucchini boats?

Keto is a low carb and high fat way of eating. When we were being conscious of keto and carbs for that month of January I mentioned, the goal was 20 gram of carbs per day.

There are 6 grams of carbohydrates in a medium-sized zucchini. Most sausage servings have under 1 gram of carbs (be sure to check your brand and type, plus). The sprinkle of Parmesan on these has under .2 grams of carbs. That’s the majority of what you’re eating. There are onion and tomatoes too, and you’re getting maybe 1 gram of carbs from each of those. So, as an approximation, you’re eating under 10 grams of carbs for two pieces of sausage stuffed zucchini boats. For us, that was a perfect keto dinner.

Of course, double check your numbers before eating these.

Can you reheat zucchini boats?

You can. I make six zucchini boats, but we only eat five at once. So we always have one left over.

You can microwave it if you want, but it’s not as good that way. Your best way to reheat zucchini boats is in the oven. 

Can you freeze zucchini boats?

Zucchini doesn’t freeze well. So I definitely wouldn’t freeze zucchini boats. You’ll only want to make as many as you can eat in the next few days because you’ll have to keep them in the fridge.

More zucchini recipes:

If you’re looking for more zucchini recipes, we have a few for you:

– Foil Packet Grilled Vegetables
– Baked Parmesan Zucchini
– Zucchini Bread
– Easy Baked Zucchini

 

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