Marinated Grilled Zucchini

Your mother called. She wants you to eat more green vegetables. And if she is anything like my mother, she also wants you to clean your cutlery drawer, find out what your brother’s been up to, and teach her  more slang terms so she can impress her “peeps”.  Love you, mom!

On Friday, JD and I spend a completely lovely evening BBQing, drinking, and being silly with our friends K. and C. and their little girl, MJ. On the menu: sausages from the Italian butcher across the street, couscous salad with cherry tomatoes, grilled zucchini, and an impressive amount of beer and vodka.

This is a very quick side dish that can be put together and cooked in under 15 minutes. It also makes a nice alternative to a plain jane salad. I am not a lover of giant bowls of lettuce + assorted diced vegetables dug from the bowels of the refrigerator so I’m always looking for different ways to get veggies in. Plus, grilling things over open flames is really fun.

Serves 4 as a side dish

2 large zucchini, cut into 1/2″ pieces

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

a pinch of salt

I like to slice my zucchini on the diagonal because I am quite fancy, really.

Mix together all your ingredients and toss with zucchini. Let marinate about 5-10 minutes (although this is optional).

Grill about 1 minute per side over medium high heat – or better yet, have someone do it for you! Credit here goes to our friend, C.

Enjoy! This is the gluten-free, low carb version for me….(I also ate many more tomatoes and zucchinis than shown)…

And here’s the JD version with brown rice couscous salad included. All accounts stated that the couscous was pretty delicious – we used this garlic and olive oil kind.

All in all a great evening with some great friends – hopefully soon to be repeated. JD and I have been lucky to learn a lot about parenting from K. and C. They even let us babysit their little girl when she was only 8 hours old – they were in the next room – but it was still an experience I won’t soon forget. Happy Mother’s day to my dear friend K. – I am sure your day will be filled with cuddles and giggles!

From left: me, K., and Miss MJ