Slightly Obsessed

Sorry if you're over me yacking about my garden, but we have all really enjoyed our mini crop this year. For a few weeks, we were knee deep in ginormous zucchinis and I had to come up with multiple ways to use them so that we didn't get sick of our supply. Thanks to Pinterest, the possibilities are endless! Just your luck, I'm going to share two of my favorite options for this summer veggie. Warning: not super healthy:)

First, there's baked parmesan zucchini. Though there is a slightly higher fat and sodium content than a so-called "healthy food" in this recipe, I feel like it is great alternative to a "fried" option. You still get the crunchy texture with less badness. That's a word, right? The trick: olive oil spray instead of veggie oil or butter. I used a recipe from The Cottage Home as a basis for the following instructions. She used frozen zucchini. I prefer fresh.

You'll need:

• olive oil spray
• one fresh zucchini cut in rounds or "sticks"
• two eggs whipped up
• 2 cups panko bread crumbs (Japanese style makes them extra crunchy)
• Parmesan cheese (1/2 cup or a little more)
• 1/2 TBS Italian seasoning

What you'll do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Spray a large baking sheet with olive oil
3. Mix up the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and Italian seasoning
4. Dip the zucchini in the egg and then the crumb mixture
5. Place coated zucchini on baking sheet and then once all zucchini has been coated and placed on sheet, spray again with olive oil spray
6. Bake zucchini for 5 minutes, flip, and bake for 10 more
7. Serve immediately with ranch or marinara dip

Sooooo good. You'll be addicted after one bite. The second thing I concocted with all these wonderful veggies went down a little bit sweeter route.  WhipperBerry blog had the perfect recipe for zucchini bread. It was so good, I'm simply going to give you the link because it needed no alterations in my opinion. I did opt to add cream cheese frosting to one of my loafs because, well, I thought they could be the perfect marriage. And just in case you're wondering, this recipe does make lovely zucchini spice cupcakes.

 *Side note: The bread isn't burnt like it looks. WhipperBerry offered the tip of using cocoa instead of flour to coat the dish before baking. That way, when the bread easily plops out of the dish to serve, it isn't all weird and white. Genius, right?