12 August 2007

Uses for Zucchini

My zucchini plants are producing quite well, too well to just make zucchini bread out of them unless I want to make myself very, very ill. So I went hunting for recipes. The one I'm trying at the moment is a Zucchini Taco Casserole recipe. In case the link dies, I'll reproduce it below, and note any changes I've made:
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1 pound.................ground chicken breast BEEF
1 large.................YELLOW onion chopped
1 clove.................garlic, chopped
3 2+1 tablespoons...........2 T TACO SPICE MIX + 1 T chili powder
¾ teaspoonTO TASTE..............salt
1/8 teaspoon............pepper OMITTED
2 cups..................frozen whole kernel corn (1 10 oz package)
1 medium................zucchini, unpeeled, diced
1 - 15 ounce can........tomato sauce (APPROX. 10 oz. of leftover pizza sauce)
2 teaspoon..............dried cilantro OMITTED (I hate cilantro; dried is better than fresh, but yech)
APPROX 2 cups..................crushed tortilla chips
6 ounce.................cheddar 4 CHEESE MEXI MIX cheese, shredded
2 medium................green onions, chopped OMITTED
Sour cream, optional OMITTED
Salsa, optional OMITTED

Oven Temp: 375°
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Pan Type: 2 quart casserole dish

Preheat Oven.

In a large skillet brown the ground chicken onion and garlic until meat is no longer pink in the middle AND ONIONS ARE TRANSPARENT. Drain well. Add the chili powder, salt and pepper, mix well. Add the corn, diced zucchini, tomato sauce and dried cilantro. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Place one cup of the crushed tortilla chips in bottom of casserole dish.

Pour meat mixture on top of chips. Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top of meat mixture and remaining crushed tortilla chips.

Bake for the allotted time in preheated oven.

Garnish with sliced green onions. Serve with sour cream and salsa if desired.

Serves: 4 - 6
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Hmmm... I made more changes than I thought. Anyway, I'm using beef because Mexican food is one of the few places where dead cow actually tastes halfway decent. Also, beef has been tasting good to me lately, which almost certainly means I'm low in some nutrient contained in beef.

The nice thing is that there were no changes necessary for it to be gluten-free. The only thing to watch out for is the corn chips. Many Mexican corn chips are gluten free, but not all. "Modified food starch" sometimes shows up. If they're flavored, there may even be "wheat flour" in them, likely because the gluten helps the flavoring stick to the chips.

Verdict: Pretty good. I think it could use some fresh, shredded lettuce as a garnish, but overall I like it. Oh, and I'd recommend using at least a 2.5 quart casserole. It overflowed the 2 quart a bit, and I wound up leaving off some of the cheese as a result.

2 comments:

John said...

It's good just slice lightly breaded and fried.

Qalmlea said...

Lately I've been mostly a one-dish meal kinda cook, unless the second dish involves no work. *shrugs* It's good steamed, too. And I might see what it does to yeast bread. The added moisture would be very welcome in GF bread.