Tuesday, July 20, 2010

More zucchini recipes!!!

Zucchini, zucchini, zucchini..... these babies seem to grow enormous overnight!! I'm making a real effort to try to utilize every single one of these wonders

first up, I have a recipe that I got off of my weight watcher's message board..

Zuck-a-mole

just as it sounds, it's a 'guacamole' type of dip or spread , but it's made with zucchini rather then avocado!!

the recipe is courtesy of Billie Jean form Warren, Michigan

3 pounds summer squash
Approximately 1/2 head garlic
1 large onion (sweet varieties preferred, i.e. Vidalia, Walla Walla)
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1/4 cup
1/2 cup basil and/or mint leaves
1/2 cup parsley, stemmed
2 tablespoons juice of lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Preheat oven to 375.
Slice zucchini in half, lengthwise. Separate garlic cloves but keep skins on. Quarter onion. Place vegetables in roasting pan and slather with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the teaspoon of salt. Roast until extremely tender, at least 1 hour and up to 90 minutes. 
















While vegetables are roasting, prepare herbs; pull leaves off stems and tear or chop coarsely. Let vegetables cool slightly and squeeze garlic from skins. Place all vegetables into bowl of food processor and pulse. Add herbs. Puree until smooth and combined. Add lemon juice and salt. Drizzle in remaining olive oil. Taste for seasonings and adjust accordingly.
Chill and serve with crackers, pita crisps, crudite or make as part of a sandwich.





This was jut as yummy warm as it was cold ( I couldn't wait for it to cool to try it).  For those of you on WW, I'm not sure point-wise, but it's probably pretty low. You could make it even a bit more point friendly but switching out some of the olive oil for chicken broth.

another keeper!

Next I made Zucchini carpachio from Tyler Florence.

I used my mandolin to slice the zucchini very thinly, but you could do it with just a knife, it just takes longer. I also used about 1/2 of the ricotta cheese.

It also took only 1 zucchini for this plate. I have some pretty big zucchini!!!

Scott found a recipe for zucchini quesadillas in a magazine, so we tried those. I thinly sliced about 1/2 of a zuck, and sliced some jalapeno cheddar cheese.

 I sprayed a non-stick skillet with cooking spray then added a tortilla ( mine was from trader Joe's, I think a chili-lime flavored one) added the cheese then topped with the thin zucchini.



I chopped up a bit of avocado & made some  basil confetti, seasoned it with s & p.

This particular one, I just cooked then fold in half then used a pizza cutter to cut into wedges.  You could also just add another layer of cheese, add another tortilla, flip it, for twice the serving.

In an effort to behave, I was good and only ate my half ;)



I usually would eat something like this with non-fat greek yogurt with some cumin mixed in. I must have been in a rush.......

I'm off to PT~  my first time driving in a month, but I have one more post later this evening.. another zucchini dish, but for right now, I am out of time....

and yes, I will be VERY careful!!!

xoxoxo

thanks for reading!

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