How's your summer going? Making good memories? Getting good tan lines? Drinking good beer? Jumping into lakes and pools and oceans? I hope so!
Since we moved earlier this month, we haven't been doing much "summer stuff." Our primary goal has been getting settled and unpacked. This time around, we pretty much started over with furniture. We had no bed, no nightstands, not enough clothes storage. Slowly, we've been filling the space and finding places for all of our crap. We ordered a bed frame and a mattress from Amazon – and upgraded to a queen size, which makes me feel like a queen. Our feet don't hang off the bed anymore. 👍 We found an adorable dresser at a thrift store and matching nightstands from Craigslist. And an awesome plush velvet chair from Craigslist, too. Is it practical? No. But it looks super cool in our hallway.
Meanwhile, we've been making the most of summer while sticking around our new place. We've grilled with new friends. We've hiked at North Cheyenne Cañon and Red Rock Open Space. We've discovered our area health food store which stocks an abundance of produce, kombucha, and bulk foods. We've walked Scout all around our new neighborhood. We've gotten lost driving across town without Google Maps. We had our first brunch at Odyssey Gastropub – Colorado Springs dining guide coming soon! We visited the farmer's market, which was surprisingly the biggest and busiest one we've ever been to. We found local cherries, zucchini, tomatoes, brussels sprouts (!), and corn. And we filmed a video for this recipe!
All in all, I'm pretty impressed with the variety and availability of fresh, seasonal produce here. We've been eating all the summer foods and I'm never going to get tired of it. In fact, I'm just coming up with more ways to enjoy them, combine them, and make the season last. For example, these pinwheels stuffed with all of my favorite things.
These are summer at its finest. We spread a goat cheese and pesto mixture on slices of zucchini (we love our mandolin for things like this!), layered some spinach, rolled the zucchini around cherry tomatoes and oven roasted them on a bed of marinara sauce. 😛😛😛 Flavor. Party. Right. Now. Is there anything better than the combo of tomatoes and goat cheese? I think not.
Admittedly, we haven't spent a whole lot of time outdoors. But that's going to change this weekend. In my opinion, we've done enough organizing, painting, sorting, and settling for now. It's time to get outside! We're heading west to camp near an abandoned mine and do some hiking in the Cripple Creek area. How Clark convinced me to camp near an abandoned mine, I may never understand. 🙄 I'll report back if we survive.
I'll be sharing our adventures on Instagram – and I'd love to see what you're up to, too! K? K. 💃💃💃
Let us know how you get on with this baked zucchini roll ups recipe in the comments!
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Baked Zucchini Roll Ups with Pesto Goat Cheese
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
These zucchini roll ups combine summer's best flavors – pesto, tomatoes, and goat cheese – for a healthy, bite-sized appetizer.
Ingredients
- 2 medium zucchinis
- 12-18 cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup spinach
- 4 ounces chèvre goat cheese
- 2 Tablespoons pesto*
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup marinara sauce
- red pepper flakes – optional
Instructions
- Chop the ends off the zucchini. Use a mandolin or a sharp knife to slice to zucchini lengthwise into +/- ⅓" thick slices.
- In a small bowl, mix together the goat cheese, pesto, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Use a fork to stir until well-combined.
- One at a time, lay out the zucchini slices and spread the goat cheese mixture evenly across them. Just a thin layer!
- Lay spinach over top of the goat cheese, then place a cherry tomato at one end and being rolling.
- Once you finish rolling each pinwheel, place them on a skewer or use a toothpick to keep them in tact.
- Preheat the oven to 350º. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spread marinara sauce on the foil – and add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes if desired! ;) Then place the pinwheels on the marinara sauce and move the baking sheet into the oven.
- Bake for 20 minutes, until goat cheese begins to melt and some of the zucchini is browning.
- Allow to cool, then garnish with fresh basil! (If you garnish with basil while the roll ups are still hot, the basil will brown and look burnt.)
Notes
*We used store-bought pesto from Trader Joe's for this recipe.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Appetizer
Nutrition
- Calories: 68
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 246.6 mg
- Fat: 5.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3.7 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 3.1 g
- Fiber: 0.9 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 5.4 mg
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