Grilled Zucchini Roll-Ups

I recently made these for a kick off party for an arts based outreach group I work for and they were a hit! It suck a simple, easy recipe but delivers a lot of fresh flavor.

Ingredients 
make about 15 roll-ups

• 3 zucchinis
• 1/2 small red bell pepper, sliced into slivers the width of the zucchini
• 1/4 cup fresh spinach, chopped
• 7-8 tsp basil and sun-dried tomato feta cheese
• 2 tbsp dried basil
•  1/2 lime
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
  

 Start by chopping off the top and bottom ends of your zucchini. Slice your zucchini into 1/4" inch slices (discarding the green skin pieces). Drizzle olive oil over both sides of the zucchini and season with salt, pepper and dried basil.

Place zucchini slices on a cast iron grill pan that has been heated over medium heat. Cook until grill marks appear on both sides. Set aside to cool.

Once cooled, you can begin assembling the roll-ups. Lay a zucchini slice across a clean cutting board and hit it with a squirt of lime juice. On one end of the zucchini, place 1/2 tsp of feta cheese, 2-3 slivers of bell pepper and a nice pinch of spinach. From that same end, begin to roll the zucchini around the filling and secure with a toothpick. Repeat this process for all remaining zucchini slices.

Assemble on a serving platter and enjoy!
 

Chicken Italian Sausage Calzone

INGREDIENTS
Serves 2

• 1 package of pre-made pizza dough
•  whole milk mozzarella cheese
• Italian blend shredded cheese
• chicken Italian style sausages (or sausage of your choice)
• basil leaves
• garlic cloves
• vine tomatoes
• spinach leaves
• sliced mushrooms
• olive oil
• your favorite store bought or homemade marinara
• grated Romano cheese (optional)

The beauty of this is that you can use as much or as little filling as you'd like. Start by taking your pre-made pizza dough out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for an hour. While the dough sits, slice your sausage. Saute the sausage in a pan along with your mushrooms. Set aside. After the hour passes, lightly flour your working space and cut the dough into 2 even pieces. Lightly flour your work space and roll out each piece of dough into a circular (I used rectangular) shape.

 

The next step is to fill half of your pizza dough. Again, you can use as much or as little as you'd like. I layered mine with mozzarella, Italian shredded cheese, sausage and mushrooms, minced garlic, tomato slices, spinach and more mozzarella.

Fold over the other half of the dough to cover the filling. Make sure that the edges are secure and sealed so that the filling does not ooze out during baking (I used a fork to seal the edges of each calzon). Place the calzones on a baking sheet drizzled with olive oil. Drizzle more olive oil on top of each calzone. Bake them in an oven preheated to 425 degrees for 30 minutes.

While the calzones are baking, heat up your favorite marinara or prepare your own. I quickly put together a marinara consisting of crushed tomatoes, a freshly diced tomato, chopped basil, minced garlic, diced red onion, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. 

When your calzones are done baking, let them rest for a few minutes. Top it with your marinara and some grated Romano cheese. Or if you prefer, have your marinara on the side or none at all. Afterall, it's about what YOU like. Make it your own!

Easy Eggplant and Zucchini Lasagna

I started by making my cheesey filling. I rarely use measurements when cooking so please forgive me. In a bowl, I mixed ricotta cheese and sauteed mushrooms, onions & garlic. I added a bit of fresh thyme & rosemary and salt & pepper to taste.

I then sliced 1 zucchini  and half of a large eggplant into slice lengthwise. I wanted this lasagna to be a bit heart so my slices were close to 1/4” thick.

For my tomato sauce, I used a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and a can of plain tomato sauce. I added roughly chopped garlic, rosemary, pepper, garlic salt, pepper and dried Italian seasonings. I topped it all off with some good extra virgin olive oil.

I took out a medium glass baking dish and began to make my layers. To save time I used no boil lasagna pasta. I started with a bit of sauce in the bottom of the dish and placed a layer of pasta on top. I then began alternating between zucchini, riccota mixture, shredded mozzarella, grated romano cheese, eggplant and sauce. The use of zucchini and eggplant also cuts down on the amount of carbs in the dish because you use less of the lasagna pasta.

You want to top everything off with the last of your sauce, mozarella and romano cheese. I placed it in an oven I preheated to 375 degrees and baked it for about 45-50 mins. During the last 5 minutes of cook time, I switched the oven setting to boil so that the cheese on top could get a nice golden brown.

The end result is an ooey, gooey cheesy lasagna. Let is sit for about 5-10 minutes before cutting. With the eggplant and zucchini you really wont miss the meat. Eat it solo topped with extra romano chese or with a nice salad of mixed greens with a vinaigrette.