An easy, tasty recipe: tuna filled zucchini

Hi Friends,

Good morning and happy Friday! I hope you are having a great week and had a nice weekend.

I did, last weekend and this whole week I was by myself with the kids. I am always intimidated by weekends by myself with the kids, mainly because I am afraid that they would get bored and watch too much tv. As I told you before, I tend to be a perfectionist and my dream would be to always have nice activities planned for the kids, awsome meals planned, I would love to see the kids washed and well dressed, have the house look nice without too much laundry around, messy beds and dirty dishes in the kitchen, but I know that it is just a dream, especially when the husband is not home and especially when you want to really spend quality time with your kids and enjoy the day with them. I always make the mistake of thinking of what is going to happen next: `I can`t play because I have to clean or cook, or do the laundry`. But these last weeks and especially this weekend I tried to be a little more flexible and focus on the present. I still have a long way to go, but I am working on it! Last weekend we had two nice days and spent a lot of time outside playing sports, riding bikes and scooters and at the park. The kids were so tired at night that they fell asleep in seconds after our night routine!!

Today I wanted to talk a little about cooking and getting things ready for dinner: meal planning is something I struggle with: I always tell myself that in the weekend I want to plan meals for the following week, to make life easier when I am in a rush, but I never do it. So I often find myself running around while I think what to cook for dinner! That`s why I am always looking for easy, fast recipes to make at night for my family. A couple weeks ago I put together a dinner recipe that I liked a lot. My husband liked it too, the kids not too much I have to say, but they are always hesitant to try new things! One day I thought I heard Benedetta Parodi talking about zucchini filled with tuna and parmigiano cheese, so I wanted to replicate the recipe, but when I checked on her website, I couldn`t find the recipe. (Benedetta Parodi is a famous Italian cook, who wrote many books and was in many tv shows!). I decided to make one up and have it adapted to our needs (I did not use any bread or grain because my husband can`t eat them).

And here we go, with these quantities I made 4 big zucchini, we ate them for dinner and had many leftovers for the following day:

TUNA FILLED ZUCCHINI:

-4 big zucchini

-2 cans of tuna (I use the one in olive oil, but you can use any kind)

-5 tablespoons of grated parmigiano cheese

-salt

-olive oil

Cook the zucchini,  cut them in half and remove the inside. Place the inside in a food processor with the two cans of tuna (without oil), the salt and the parmigiano cheese. If you like them, you can add some capers too. When everything is mixed, use it to fill the zucchini which you previously placed on a pan. Sprinkle the zucchini with some grated parmigiano cheese and oil and place in the oven at 365 F until they are a little brown on top, it should be around 20 minutes. (You can broil the zucchini for 5 extra minutes).

And that`s it!

Tips:

– I cooked zucchini in the microwave: I put them together in a glass pan with a little water and cooked them for 10 minutes. You can also boil or steam them, whatever is easier for you. I did this in the morning, so when it was time to cook dinner, they weren`t too hot!

-I always cook bigger quantities at night, so we always have leftovers for my lunch and for the kids` lunchboxes for the following day.

This is it for today, I hope you will try this recipe.

Have a great long weekend and I will see you here next week.

Anna