By Emily McLaughlin

I love eating at my moms because I get to do a lot of the cooking, without doing much of the buying. ;)

This past weekend, I made a delicious, light summer dish with all the fresh veggies my mom had acquired from a friend’s garden (and the grocery store). She had zucchini, yellow squash, Japanese eggplant, red bell peppers and juicy, red tomatoes.

Earlier in the summer, my lovely Group Fitness boss invited a few of the gym folk over for a delicious summer meal. As a side dish, she make stuffed zucchini boats–the inspiration for this dish. Of course, you can use any variety of vegetable,

Italian-style, stuffed vegetables (serves 3-4)

3 veggies of your choice, sliced in half the long way

(For this recipe I chose 1 zucchini, 1 yellow squash and 1 Japanese eggplant)

1 medium tomato, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1-2 cloves of garlic, pressed and finely chopped

Fresh basil and thyme, chopped

1 egg

1 cup breadcrumbs

2 tbsp parmesan cheese

Olive oil

1. Gut the sliced veggies, dice the insides and place in a medium-sized bowl

2. To the bowl, add the tomato, red bell pepper, garlic, spices and egg. Mix well.

3. Next, add the breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese to the bowl and continue mixing. At this point… you’re stuffing is done.

4. Arrange your veggie boats on a baking pan and drizzle them with olive oil. Fill the insides of the veggies with your prepared stuffing, sprinkling them with extra cheese if desired.

5. This weekend, we grilled the veggies on foil for 20-25 minutes, or until the stuffing began to crisp. You can also bake the veggies in the oven at 375 for the same amount of time, checking periodically to make sure that they are not burning. The egg will cook through fairly quickly, so focus on reaching your desired veggie softness and stuffing crispness.

Enjoy this light summer dish on warm summer evening. :) Stay healthy, stay happy.