KateOr “Sorry, Waistline. We have a new nemesis and Fried Zucchini is her name”
I am sharing my daily struggles/successes/messes of a 7 Day Shop the Pantry Challenge where I attempt to create all meals from food we already have in our home. You can read the original post about this challenge here.
I am late posting about our Day 4. Summer craziness has been getting to me and this Mama is exhausted. There is just so much to do, friends to see, projects to work on and only so much of me to go around. Plus the heat has gotten in-sane (which makes me cranky) but as a bonafide grownup, you press on and do the best you can.
Day 4 Meal Plan
Breakfast: Zucchini Muffins (the muffins are now gone! I’m mentally preparing for tomorrow’s protest and riot from Boy 1), cottage cheese, scrambled egg, bananas.
Lunch: To use up some tortillas I found buried in our bread basket (Thanks a lot for hiding from me, tortillas. You would have been nice to have on taco night!), we had deli turkey and shredded cheese roll-ups with cherry tomatoes and snap peas from the garden.
Dinner: I didn’t plan to have anything especially fantabulous for dinner. I marinated two chicken breasts in 1/4 cup each of brown sugar, soy sauce, white vinegar, olive oil, and a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce. Mr DIY grilled those bad boys up while I made whole wheat spaghetti with store bought marinara to go with it.
But we had a surprise appearance that knocked our socks off.
Fried zucchini, fresh from the Kitchen Garden
I LOVE fried zucchini but don’t fry much when I cook at home. I’ve tried Oven Fried Zucchini to make it “healthier” but the pieces end up overcooked, mushy and….squashy tasting. I know, I know. Zucchini is a squash so it should taste like squash. But fried zucchini never tastes squashy! It is mild flavored and tender without getting mushy since it’s cooked for such a short time. Sorry, just not my fave.
Since I had more zucchini to use from the garden (squash vines can be prolific growers!), I decided to give frying it a whirl. I didn’t have a whole of of optimism about it but do you want to know how pleased everyone was with this experiment? That plate pictured above was 3/4 gone by the time dinner even started! Children, husband, Mama….every single person loved them. And let me tell ya, that NEVER happens in this house. Enjoy something enough to eat it? Sure. But to keep coming back begging for more? Nope. Not once in my memory. And once you dip it in the marinara? Fuggetaboutit!
I think I will call it The Best Fried Zucchini Ever!
There is still 1 1/2 zucchini left in the fridge and I know what I’m going to be doing with them!
What are some of your favorite ways to use zucchini?