When the CSA Box Gives You Zucchini…

Hi friends!  I hope your week is off to a great start! As I type, we’ve got new carpet being installed over our upstairs and it will be going into our dining room, too.  I’m REALLY excited for this.  Our carpet has been in our house for over 12 years… I would guess it’s at LEAST 15 years old.  It’s had dog pee, baby pee, and miscellaneous stains on it.  I can’t wait to see how everything looks once it is all finished!

Have you ever prepped for a carpet installation?  It’s no joke.  You have to get everything off the floors… which is basically like moving out of your house temporarily.  I had to move every piece of china out of the dining room and it’s all stacked on my kitchen table.

Want to guess what this is? 

It USED to be a bathroom.  Today it is a catch-all.  I can’t even see the toilet.  This morning, Sadie said, “Mooo-ooom!  You made a wall out of all my stuff!”  She’s kinda right.

But soon… it will all be done.

Today I have an easy recipe for a popular summer veggie.  I was really excited to try this and I think it was delicious!  I hope you love it, too! 

We pick up our CSA Box every Tuesday and we’ve had a lot of zucchini coming in. 

I usually saute it, and I like it that way, but I wanted to try something different.  I’ve seen a lot of zucchini bread and muffin recipes, but since I finished my Whole30, I am not eating wheat.  This morning, as I was searching for new recipes, I came across this one and thought the idea of zucchini fries sounded delicious and interesting.  I had to do some adjusting, because I wasn’t going to use breadcrumbs, and I didn’t have any parmesan cheese.  I also used a whole egg—not just an egg white because I am just way too lazy for separating eggs.  If you are not following a Paleo diet, you could make them as the recipe is written.  I have rewritten it so that it is almost Paleo (you could leave out the milk if needed). 

Almost-Paleo Zucchini Fries

Ingredients:

• 1 medium-large zucchini squash
• 1 egg
• splash of milk
• almond meal (about a half or 3/4 cup)
• salt and pepper
• Emeril’s Original Essence Seasoning (or whatever seasonings you prefer)
• cooking spray—olive oil spray or whatever kind of oil you like

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cut zucchini into “fries.”  Thinner are better—they will crisp up better.  Set aside.  In a bowl, mix egg and milk well.  In a plastic bag, place the almond meal, salt, pepper, and spices.  Dip the zucchini slices in the egg mixture and then transfer to the bag.  Seal and shake well to coat the zucchini.  Lay out on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  Spray a thin layer of the oil on top of the prepped fries.  Bake for about 10 minutes, turn over, and bake another 5 minutes or so, until they have started to brown and crisp up a little.

Enjoy!

I didn’t use ketchup, but I think these could be served with ketchup.  I also think my little one would like them, and she doesn’t usually like zucchini.  (Something about the texture, I think.)

Let me know if you give these a try—and tell me how you like them!  I enjoyed them with a leftover pork chop, and tomato salad.

Finally, I would like to ask for everyone to be thinking about this sweet face. 

This is my sister’s dog, Mady.  Isn’t she beautiful?  Sweet Mady has really faced some health issues lately.  She is only a little over one year old.  She had to have a major surgery last week because her intestines were blocked.  Then she had a terrible reaction to the sutures and had to have everything redone.  She’s recovering now.  Her body has been through so much.  I know many of you are dog-lovers out there, so you can imagine how much this sweet face means to my sister and her husband.  They could use your thoughts and prayers.