Charming chips give zucchini a new look

From the mixture for Roasted Veggie Tacos that I blogged about earlier in the week I still had some extra medium zucchini. I pulled into service a second recipe from my Kroger flyer and baked up some crispy zucchini chips.

These zucchini thin slices were tossed in a seasoned bread-crumb mixture, sprayed with cooking spray, and oven-baked, so all was healthy. After being flipped in the oven only once, they were nicely browned. They made a wonderful side for some turkey/mushroom burgers we had for dinner last night.

Hubby has decided that the mystery plant in his garden has turned out to be zucchini, so once the garden’s up, we should be growing our own of the veggie and have even more excuses for Zucchini Chips.

We liked these so much for dinner, we didn’t even need to smother them with ketchup. The seasoned breading made them plenty tangy. An easy, healthy side!

Zucchini Chips

cooking spray

1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs

1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or salt substitute)

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 cup milk (I used skim)

4 medium zucchini, thinly sliced

Prepare oven to 450 degrees; grease two baking sheets with cooking spray. In a shallow bowl combine breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, dried basil, salt, and pepper. Whisk to combine. Pour milk into another shallow bowl. Dip zucchini slices in milk and dredge them in breadcrumb mixture. Place coated zucchini slices on prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Spray the tops of the slices with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes or until slices are crisp and brown. Flip and bake for another 10 minutes or until chips are crisp and brown. For a pretty presentation serve pre-dished in small bowls lined with parchment paper or large cupcake liners. Refrigerate any leftovers. Serves 6. (Source: Kroger mymagazine)

Slow-cooker Chicken-and-Squash Casserole helps slow down at least part of life

“Slow things down!” That cry seems to emerge again and again as the holiday steamroller begins its annual procession toward us. All we really want for Christmas is more time—and more time to savor our experiences.

I liked a recent magazine feature that rounded up some good slow-cooker recipes. While activity elsewhere is at a fever-pitch, preparing the family meal doesn’t have to be. Throw some healthy items into a slow-cooker and let that kitchen appliance put at least part of your life on a crawl.

We enjoyed Chicken-and-Squash Casserole that featured slices of yellow squash and zucchini and cooked chicken with a sauce layered around it. It can be left simmering all day. At mealtime you’ll thank yourself for getting this little jewel assembled hours beforehand. (In a pinch, the meal also can be layered into a casserole dish and baked in the oven on 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.)

Chicken-and-Squash Casserole

2 pounds yellow squash, sliced

1 pound zucchini, sliced

1 large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes

4 cups chopped cooked chicken

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of chicken soup

1 (8-ounce) container sour cream (I used fat-free)

1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups soft, fresh breadcrumbs

3 cups (12 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) shredded Parmesan cheese

Place first 3 ingredients in a large microwave-safe bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap; fold back a small edge to allow steam to escape. Microwave at high 8 minutes or until squash is tender; drain. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drain tomatoes well. Press between paper towels. Stir together tomatoes, chicken, and next 4 ingredients. Layer one-third each soup mixture, squash mixture, breadcrumbs, and Cheddar cheese in a lightly greased 6-quart slow cooker. Repeat layers twice. Top with Parmesan cheese. Cover and cook on high 4 hours or until bubbly and edges are golden. Uncover and cook on high 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before you serve. Makes 6 servings. (Source: Southern Living, November 2012)

Lemon Poppy Seed-Zucchini Bread

Farm-stand find: fresh zucchini. Now for some creative way to use it. I remembered that Southern Living had featured a most enticing recipe for Lemon-Poppy Seed Zucchini Bread. It was proposed as a food gift, since the mini loaves as suggested make such nice last-minute gifts: take-alongs for a hostess present or tuck-ins with a casserole for a recuperating friend.

I loved the idea of combining zucchini, poppy seeds, and lemon zest for a taste treat. Other than a few minutes to shred the zucchini, which I did in a blender, this mixture pulled together quickly. The mini loaves, baked in 5-inch-by-3-inch pans, were just darling. Hubby and I had trouble having any left over for gift-giving, however. They were easy to slice and tote as snacks for one of our road trips. Freezing some extras and thawing later were easy as well. Cute, cute, cute and a yummy change from traditional zucchini bread!

Lemon-Poppy Seed Zucchini Bread

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cups sugar (or sugar substitute)

3 large eggs (or 3/4 cup egg substitute)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup sour cream (I used fat-free)

1 cup shredded zucchini

1 tablespoon lemon zest

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. With a heavy-duty electric stand mixer beat butter at medium speed until butter is creamy. Gradually add sugar; beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time; beat just until blended after each addition. Stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream. Begin and end with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until mixture is blended after each addition. Stir in zucchini and next 2 ingredients. Spoon batter into 3 greased and floured 5-inch-by-3-inch loaf pans (about 1 1/3 cups batter per pan). Bake at 325 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until a wood pick inserted into center emerges clean. Cook in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely, about 30 minutes. Makes 3 (5-inch-by-3-inch) loaves. (Source: Southern Living August 2012)

Got a winner here: Italian Herb Zucchini skillet

Hubby and I liked this Italian Herb Zucchini skillet a whole lot. It was a real treat—cubed fresh zucchini, tomatoes, and green onions stirred into cooked rice and seasoned with lots of good herbs and laced together with Cheddar cheese.

Seems as though lately all our dishes have been highly colorful, but that’s always a sign of fresh, healthy ingredients. This skillet was a meal in itself. I cut up a large avocado and sprinkled a few grapes as extras on the plate, served up a big spoonful of the zucchini dish, and we were in business. This has been our dinner for the past two nights. I’m sure it will be on our favorites list for more meals.

Italian Herb Zucchini

2 cups cooked brown rice

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 cups zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup green onions, sliced

1 teaspoon garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon basil, dried (I used fresh basil)

1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika

1/2 teaspoon oregano, dried

1 (14.5-ounce) can tomatoes, diced, drained and rinsed (I used the no-salt-added variety)

1 cup reduced-fat Cheddar cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the zucchini, green onions, and garlic for 5 minutes or until tender. Season with garlic powder, basil, paprika, and oregano. Mix in cooked rice, tomatoes, and 1 cup cheese. Continue to cook and stir until the mixture is heated through. Makes 15 1/2-cup servings. (Source: Chickasaw Nation Nutrition Services)

Italian Herb Zucchini

2 cups cooked brown rice

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 cups zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 cup green onions, sliced

1 teaspoon garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon basil, dried (I used fresh basil)

1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika

1/2 teaspoon oregano, dried

1 (14.5-ounce) can tomatoes, diced, drained and rinsed (I used the no-salt-added variety)

1 cup reduced-fat Cheddar cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the zucchini, green onions, and garlic for 5 minutes or until tender. Season with garlic powder, basil, paprika, and oregano. Mix in cooked rice, tomatoes, and 1 cup cheese. Continue to cook and stir until the mixture is heated through. Makes 15 1/2-cup servings. (Source: Chickasaw Nation Nutrition Services)

Cashews give crunch to this veggie-laden Turkey with Curried Cream Sauce

Soothing, healthy, colorful, good re-use of leftovers. I got all those qualities and more more in this Turkey with Curried Cream Sauce dish. My recipe book billed it as a great way with holiday turkey leftovers, but I enjoyed it so much, I’d find some fresh turkey breast to fix (you probably also could use some chicken, such as a chicken breast) just to make it happen.

One cut-up yellow squash and one cut-up zucchini, along with chopped onion (I also added a few red bell pepper strips that I had on hand), are cooked until tender in the curried gravy. Add turkey and lemon peel.

This recipe assembles quickly and disappears just as fast—a great idea for these first-of-the-year meals when everyone is hastening to get “normal” restored to their lives. I love that the recipe called for sprinkling cashews (my fave nuts!) on the top. It suggests serving this sauce over rice, but I had some biscuits that needed to be devoured, so I served this wonderful creamed dish over them and just loved it.

Foodwise (thanks to Taste of Home Thanksgiving Recipe Cards for this one), our new year has gotten off to a delicious start.

Turkey with Curried Cream Sauce

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

1 cup chicken broth (I used low-sodium)

1/4 cup milk (I used skim)

1 small yellow squash, sliced

1 small zucchini, sliced

12 small onions, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons canola oil

2 cups cubed cooked turkey breast

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel

hot cooked rice

3 tablespoons chopped cashews

In a small saucepan melt butter; stir in flour and curry until smooth. Gradually add broth and milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened; remove from the heat; set aside. In large skillet saute the squash, zucchini, and onion in oil until all are tender. Add the turkey, lemon peel, and reserved sauce; heat through. Serve with rice. Sprinkle each serving with cashews. Makes 4 servings.

Birthday party in one casserole dish—thankful for this veggie lasagna . . . and another year of life

It’s my birthday and I can cook what I want to. That’s my maxim on this day as I celebrate another year of life. Hubby asked what kind of birthday celebration I wanted. I replied that this was no big milestone year—just thankfulness for being able to rejoice in another year lived.

But I did specify these three things: that we would get up and run the Two-Mile Bridge (over Lake Ray Hubbard) as we had on his 65th, months back (we’ll do this as soon as I get this blog posted) and that I would make myself a birthday casserole and a birthday pie. Seems like a fairly easy wish-list to achieve.

The birthday casserole I spotted was for Zucchini-and-Spinach Lasagna. The recipe appeared in the August 2011 issue of Southern Living magazine and was featured as being one way to use farmers' market finds, which were plentiful during the summer.

I love any kind of lasagna but hate all the fuss. Compared to preparing the meat-and-tomato sauce traditional version, this was a snap. To make lasagna you'll always have to contend with the layers and with stirring up the various elements in separate pans, so you’ll always have some degree of complex cleanup. But the wonderful, healthy ingredients that blend together so delightfully represent a reward for all that.

Even though today’s the official day, Hubby and I sneaked in a few bites of Zucchini-and-Spinach Lasagna last night. After all, how can I post something about this dish on my blog if I don’t first sample it?

Ahhh—smooth, well-blended, flavorful, filling, nutritious. Loved this menu item! Truly a birthday party in one casserole dish! A happy birthday present indeed.

Zucchini-and-Spinach Lasagna

1 (8-ounce) container whipped chive-and-onion cream cheese

1 (15-ounce) container ricotta cheese

1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

1 teaspoon salt

5 medium zucchini, thinly sliced (about 2 1/2 pounds)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 (10-ounce) package fresh spinach

2 garlic cloves, pressed

6 lasagna noodles, cooked according to package instructions (the recipe specified no-boil lasagna noodles, but I subbed the regular variety I had on hand)

1 (7-ounce)package shredded mozzarella cheese

Garnish: fresh basil leaves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Stir together first 4 ingredients in a bowl. Sauté zucchini in hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 3 to 4 minutes or until lightly browned. Add spinach; gently toss until wilted. Add garlic; cook 1 minute. Spoon one-third of vegetables into a lightly greased, 9-inch square baking dish; top with 2 cooked and drained noodles and one-third of the ricotta mixture. Repeat twice. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Bake, covered with aluminum foil that you have lightly sprayed with cooking spray to keep it from sticking to lasagna, at 425 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbly and noodles are tender. Uncover and bake 5 to 10 minutes or until golden. Let stand 10 minutes. Garnish, if desired. Makes 4 servings.

A fresh idea for this green wonder veggie: Zucchini and Salmon Planks

“At least our garden had zucchini this year.” This is not a claim I can make for myself, but I’ve heard several people brag on their zucchini crop this summer even while bemoaning that most everything else—even okra!—didn’t make. Now that’s a bad year, when someone’s (indomitable) okra doesn’t perform. But those who had okra crop failure still seemed to have zucchini. Go figure. We’ve planted zucchini for several summers and haven’t seen, as my mother would have said, “hide nor hair of it”.

Never fear, however. Farmers’ markets and grocery stores seem to have plentiful supplies of this summer veggie. Zucchini, which contains lutein, is worth the effort to get on the table. Lutein is good for the eyes and is known to help ward off cataracts and macular degeneration. Having seen my mom’s vision decline drastically because of macular degeneration, I want to keep that depriving condition at bay in my own life, for sure. I’d be willing to eat zucchini every day if that would happen.

Prevention magazine’s August 2011 installment featured zucchini as its pet veggie for the month and offered seven “fast and fresh ideas”, as Prevention described them, for cooking it. The recipe I tried was called “Zucchini-Wrapped Salmon”, but my zucchini must have not been sliced thinly enough to do the wrap number, so I made it into “Zucchini and Salmon Planks”—same great flavor and same pairing of zucchini with salmon, the wonder fish. The health properties of cholesterol-lowering salmon know no bounds. Everywhere one reads, some new benefit of salmon is being touted.

A simple sprinkle of thyme and a spraying with cooking oil gives this tender, light summer meal all the seasoning it needs to be delicious.

Will we try with zucchini again next season? Probably. Congrats to all gardeners who had a positive outcome in this challenging summer.

Zucchini and Salmon Planks

4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets

1 large zucchini cut into thin lengthwise slices

2 teaspoons fresh thyme

cooking spray

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray cooking oil onto baking sheet. Cut fillets into plank-like portions (basically strips that are about 4-inches long and 2-inches wide). Lay one or two zucchini strips atop salmon planks (or wrap the zucchini around the salmon fillets, if your zucchini strips are thin and malleable enough). Spray fish and zucchini combinations very lightly with cooking spray. Bake until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes. Makes 4 servings.

Southwest Skillet Corn and Zucchini makes wearin'-o-the-green a multicultural event

Son-in-law’s birthday lunch time had rolled around; of course something Irish had to be at the top of the menu list. With a birthday just two days after St. Patrick’s Day and with an Irish family heritage, son-in-law would always and forever be linked with the wearin’-o-the-green (his signature color, by the way). So without a doubt the legendary Irish recipe, Shepherd’s Pie, had to be the entree of choice. (I’ll blog about that recipe tomorrow.)

To make it a muticultural event, however (his wife did happen to be a Spanish scholar), I added a few dishes of other ethnic origins. Southwest Skillet Corn and Zucchini was a form of the Latin dish Calabacitas that I found while I performed an Internet search for something to create using fresh corn off the cob (www.seriouseats.com yielded this recipe for me). This dish almost outranked the wow! birthday dessert (to be featured later this week as well) in terms of popularity.

Southwest Skillet Corn and Zucchini involved sauteing the fresh corn, sliced zucchini, and chopped onion in a small amount of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat until the veggies started to brown. I added green chilies and garlic powder and then poured in 5 ounces chicken broth (either canned low-sodium broth or homemade). I simmered until the veggies were tender and then covered all with shredded cheese.

This made a dandy side dish that was colorful and flavorful and fresh-tasting. As I write this, I look toward my burgeoning early spring garden and envision the now-level brown dirt spot that’s been reserved for the corn ears. Before too many weeks we’ll be picking our own fresh corn ears when we want to replicate this winner of a birthday-lunch dish. Hooray!

Southwestern Skillet Corn and Zucchini

8 ears fresh corn

2 small zucchini, chopped

1 small onion, cut up

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

green chilies to taste (I used 1 tablespoon)

5 ounces chicken broth

salt (or salt substitute) and pepper to taste

3/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Steam corn until almost done; cut kernels from cob. In medium skillet heat olive oil; add corn kernels, zucchini, and onion. Cook until onion is translucent and veggies start to brown. Add garlic powder, green chilies, chicken broth, salt, and pepper. Simmer until vegetables are tender but firm, about 15 minutes, and liquid is almost evaporated. Top with grated cheese. (Just before I spread on the grated cheese, I transferred the veggies into a serving dish.) Makes 6 servings.