Zucchini Squares

The best thing about cooking is that I am inside with air conditioning and I am still being productive.  I an even watch TV while working.  The second best thing is eating what I made, assuming it is edible.  I do like to experiment with recipes

After finding some great zucchini and basil in the garden, I decided to use them for dinner.  I just bought a Bisquick All-Time Best Recipe book at the grocery store.  I have a rule of thumb for purchasing those small paper cover/magazine recipe books at the grocery check out.  If I can find at least five things I want to make, then I get it.  This one had more than that, so now it is mine.

                      
Notice all the paper strips that indicate a recipe I want to try.

As usual, I don't have or want to use everything in the recipe, so I change it to suit me.  Accordingly I renamed it to fit my rendition.

Zucchini Squares.

1 medium sized zucchini, about 1 1/2 cups thinly sliced
1/2 cup Heart Smart Bisquick
1/2 onion cup onion, diced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
2 Tablespoons basil,  thinly sliced
2 eggs
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/4 teaspoon Fines Herbes or use Italian Seasonings
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 350.  Use Pam to spray a 2 quart casserole dish.  Set aside.

I got a mandoline slicer for Christmas, so I had to use it to slice the zucchini.  Feel free to just thinly slice it by hand.

                            

Place the onions and the zucchini in a medium bowl.  I added the eggs whole on one side and then whipped them around with a fork in the same dish. 

                          

There is a technique called chiffonade for cutting up herbs.  First wash the basil and dry it with a paper towel.  Gently tear off the leaves and stack them up, one on top of the other.  Roll the stack into a long tube, like a cigarette.  Then thinly slice across the tube.  This is chiffonade and will give you thin slices of the herb you need.  In this case, the basil.

                       

Add the basil and everything else to the mixing bowl and make sure it is fully mixed.  Scrape everything into the prepared casserole and bake for 25 minutes or until it starts to brown.  Cut into squares and serve.

                          

If I had more than just the two of us to feed, I would have used this as a side dish and made a salad or some sort of meat.  Maybe pork chops or chicken breast.  This was just fine for the two of us. 

                            

I did make some fruit to go along with it.  I sliced up strawberries and fresh peaches from the Bryant Orchards, where we buy all our peaches in the summer.  I would have sprinkled lemon juice on the peaches to keep them from browning, but I neglected to buy new lemon juice after our power outage, so I just hoped they wouldn't turn colors.  I like to sprinkle a bit of Splenda on the strawberries on the theory that shipping them from where ever they grow them means they were picked too soon.  They are never as sweet as when they are locally grown, hence the Splenda.

                             

I served the fruit in a glass dish with a bit of Cool Whip, but a dollop of vanilla yogurt would have been great, also.

There are leftovers for tomorrow when I WILL make a salad.