Foodie Non-Friday (Again): Zucchini Pizza

OK guys...it is zucchini season.

Wahoo! I eagerly anticipate it all year!

Ok, not really, mostly because I typically have to beg, borrow or steal (ok, not really steal) zucchini from someone's garden. Or (perish the thought!) BUY it. GASP!

I do love me some zucchini bread.

And as I said in my last post, Christine hooked me up with some monster zucchinis (as well as green beans. And eggs.) when I helpd her with some canning last week.

Just a few of the zucchini at Christine's house

And while I had a bunch of options to utilize the eggs (zucchini bread being just one of them), I was a little more hard pressed to find green bean uses.

We have not, historically, been big green bean eaters. But I have since realized that it was because we had not found the right recipe.

I did find such a recipe and I will share it with you later. I mostly wanted to whet your appetite for more of my recipes.

But I have digressed; my point was to share a zucchini recipe. 

And now I shall.

Since Christine is on vacation, Mr. AR and I went over to her house and picked from her garden.

I was tempted but I did not cut her one sunflower

She said I could...I even made sure Christine alerted her house-sitter as to my arrival, lest I be accused of stealing. NOTE: if you were considering robbing her while she's gone, please know that she has a house sitter on the alert.

While we were there, we noticed (it was pretty obvious so I don't know how we could have missed it) that one of her "girls" had flown the coop. As a dutiful friend, I texted Christine to see if we should try to catch her. But she said to leave her: "she gets out all the time".

Frankly, I was disappointed b/c I was ready to film the whole event while Mr. AR attempted to catch the wayward hen. Or at the very least, snap some pictures. Come on, Christine...that's good blog fodder right there! Help a sister out!

Trust me, she's outside the fence.

But we left the hen alone. But I didn't feel good about it. Mostly b/c there was also (just outside the coop) a large bunch of somebody else's feathers. All over....

And nobody IN the coop looked like they were missing any feathers.

And althought there was no "body" of which to speak, I drew my own conclusions.

I did not investigate further.  Nor did I photograph the carnage. 

OK, there wasn't really "carnage" per say...just feathers; the carnage was all in my head.

And just because I am in love with the idea of having chickens, here are a couple pictures of Christine’s chickens and their coop…they were very interested in what we were doing and they were quite chatty too.

Yes it's a horrible picture...but you can still tell they're chickens, right?

And the coop

Anyway…Christine had so graciously given me two zucchini but apparently that wasn’t enough for me. We picked a few more (along with some green beans and green peppers…bummer that the tomatoes aren’t ready yet, but should be looking lovely about the time Christine gets home.)

So…I brought home some more zucchini. I’d already made 6 loaves of bread and had put some diced pieces (from the center where the seeds are b/c you clearly don’t want to use that part in your bread…we are talking mature seeds…like pumpkin-like seeds. Remember…they are all in the squash family?). All that haul was from one zucchini.

One.

And I had originally had two. Plus the additional ones that I brought home.

So I got right to work on incorporating my zucchini. I made a couple lasagnas for the freezer (prepping for the school year which will start next week…argh!) and put shredded zucchini in the sauce.

I shredded more zucchini…8 cups. Enough for 4 more loaves of bread.

I sliced up a bunch and diced it…freezing it for soups in the winter.

And I may or may not still have a zucchini or two left on my counter…

But so far (aside from the zucchini bread), this might be the best recipe yet: zucchini pizza.

Before you turn off your listening ears (or reading eyes, as it were...I don't believe my blog posts are available on audio just yet) let me explain. It’s not nearly as gross as it sounds.

Some people might call it “Gluten-Free Pizza”.

If that works for you, then call it that.

Either way...it tastes like pizza without all the carbs. The zucchini (as you may have guessed) is simply the conveyance for all the tasty pizza toppings.

I mean, I love a good crust, but frankly I am more about the toppings. So for me, this was fabulous. 

Oh, it was Ah-Mazing. My mouth is watering right now. And even the kids loved it. Both of them. Usually I run at about 50% success with the PBA, but they both enjoyed it. And of course, Mr. AR did too.

So…here’s the easy-breezey lemon-squeezey recipe (And no I do not, as of the moment, have a photo...but I will in a couple days b/c I already have zucchini sliced and ready to make more for dinner tomorrow night. Oh yes...it's that good.) 

Zucchini Pizza:

Ingredients:

• Sliced zucchini about ¼-1/2 inche thick (Note: we had 3 slices/person, but each slice measured about 3 inches in diameter…adjust your recipe accordingly)
• Pizza sauce/tomato sauce
• Any pizza toppings you want, including cheese.
• Lightly-oiled cookie sheet (or sheets if needed).

Instructions:

• Place zucchini slices on oiled cookie sheets.
• Top with sauce and toppings as desired, ending with cheese.
• Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
• Voila! Dinner is served

NOTE: We left the skin on our zucchini, which made it a little more difficult to cut; for easier cutting, remove the skin before baking. However, know that removing the skin removes the majority of the zucchini’s nutrients…which, of course, you’re eating it for the nutrients, right?

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