Italian Zucchini Boats With Ground Beef

You won’t regret trying these super simple Italian zucchini boats with ground beef. Flavorful, healthy and delicious!

I am not a green thumb at all. But I am determined to have a garden that produces something, even if it’s just a few of our favorites. Plus, it is a fantastic learning experience for my kids! My oldest daughter, Avery, loves learning hands on and wants to be beside me helping all the time. Learning something new alongside your kids is such an amazing bonding experience. I catch her all the time in the garden picking weeds, checking for pests and ripe vegetables, and helping the cucumber plant climb up the trellis the right direction. I have a feeling in a few years’ time the garden will be completely her domain.

Last year was the first year we attempted a raised bed garden. It went decent but I tried a few too many plants and wished I had planted less variety and more of our favorites. So, this year I reduced the variety of plants and focused on planting more of the ones that did well for us. Zucchini is one of the plants that I wanted more of because it is so easy to take care of and one plant produces a lot of vegetables.

Benefits of Growing Your Own Vegetables

1. Know exactly how it was grown.
2. Get a tan and some vitamin D.
3. Unwind and unplug.
4. Teach your kids an important skill.
5. Bonding time together.

Because I am a type A person, I chose the square foot method of gardening. It is a very organized method to gardening that appealed to me because it doesn’t require a lot of space, and it drastically reduces the amount of time spent weeding. Find tips for how to start a low maintenance, raised bed garden HERE.

The Best Way To Wash Your Vegetables:

I am a stickler for washing all of our fruits and vegetables really well, even if they come out of our own garden. Using just water doesn’t wash things off as well as you would hope, so I opt for a better alternative.

The Thieves Fruit & Veggie Soak is a natural, non-toxic way to clean your fruits and vegetables. You don’t have to worry about any toxic chemicals, and you only need to use a small amount to clean them well. Cleans off germs, waxes, parasites, chemical residue, etc.

I love filling up my farmhouse sink with water and a few capfuls of the Thieves Fruit & Veggie Soak, then throwing in all of my fruits and vegetables for the week at one time to wash. It gets some meal prep out of the way and saves me time. You can also just fill a bowl with water and one capful of the Thieves Fruit & Veggie Soak and do a little bit at a time. I let everything air dry or pat it off gently before putting it in the fridge. Cleaning and removing the moisture helps fruits and vegetables last longer before they go bad.

Another way to wash your fruits and vegetables is with a vinegar soak. Fill a bowl with water and add a splash of vinegar. Put a couple of drops of Lemon essential oil in for good measure.

How to Make Italian Zucchini Boats with Ground Beef

While on the hunt for zucchini recipes, I found a lot of zucchini boat recipes, but none were exactly what I needed. I always look for quick and simple recipes to throw together, spending as little time in the kitchen as possible. Every recipe I found involved scooping out the inside of the zucchini and adding it in to the sauce, then putting it all back in the zucchini and baking them. My husband actually suggested just cutting out all of the middle steps. No need to scoop the zucchini middle out and add it back in. Sometimes it’s really nice that our brains work differently…

And it worked! Same delicious flavor with a much simpler preparation.

Italian Zucchini Boats with Ground Beef Ingredients:

• 6-8 medium zucchini
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup marinara sauce
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• shredded mozzarella cheese

Italian Zucchini Boats with Ground Beef Instructions:

Prepping the zucchini boats:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wash zucchini, then chop off the tops and slice them in half long ways. Place them on a baking sheet that is lined with parchment paper.
3. Drizzle with a little olive oil and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the zucchini. You want them to be soft enough to cut into to eat.

Prepping the sauce:

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add onion and cook until it begins to turn golden. Add the garlic and stir to mix.
2. Add the ground beef and stir to mix, cooking until it is fully cooked.
3. Add the marinara sauce, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 8-10 minutes.

Putting it all together:

1. Place the zucchini boats onto each plate.
2. Top with the Italian sauce and then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Recipe Variations:

• If you are in even more of a hurry or forgot to buy an onion, mix a good portion of dried, minced onion in with the ground beef as it is cooking.
• You can still go the typical zucchini boat route with this meal if you really want to. Just scoop out the zucchini pulp and add it to the marinara sauce to cook. Divide the Italian sauce with the ground beef and zucchini pulp evenly among the zucchini boats, top with mozzarella cheese, and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and zucchini is soft.
• For kids who don’t like to get their hands messy, I chop the zucchini up into smaller bites and then top with the Italian sauce, ground beef and cheese. Basically, the zucchini becomes the noodles.
• This recipe is also good with ground turkey if you want a lower fat option.

See More Posts:

• Oven Baked Tacos
• Mexican chicken and sweet potato skillet
• Best Cincinnati Chili with Cinnamon
• Greek Chicken Tzatziki Bowl
• Deconstructed Burger Salad
• Meal Planning Ideas

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure HERE.

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• Thieves Fruit & Veggie Soak
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