Squash Solutions

Yeah, yeah… I know… I have totally fallen off the blog bandwagon. You would think with summer and no classes, I would have been better. I guess I have just needed a mental break. Anyways, I have a couple of writing ideas, so hopefully you will see more from me soon. In the meantime, chew on this one (literally) for a while.

It is that time of year where summer squash and zucchini are in abundance and everyone is looking for ways to use it up. I got this recipe from my mama, which means she probably made it while I was home one time and I liked it. It is scribbled on a sticky note and stuffed in my recipe box. Fancy, eh? I needed something to take to a pot luck, and this seemed like a good idea. It was pretty much scarfed down, so I will take that as a seal of approval.

Here are a couple of cooking notes on changes I made. The recipe below is as written, not as made.

It calls for chicken broth, but I used vegetable broth so that it was vegetarian friendly. Clearly, this is not vegan, but you could probably easily make it so with leaving out the cheese (or using a non-dairy one) and using a vegan corn bread recipe. Personally, I think the cheesy goodness is an important layer of flavor in this recipe. The original recipe calls for Jiffy corn bread. Since, I am trying to eliminated packaged foods from our diet, I found this clone recipe online and made it from scratch. Almost as easy as opening the box, I promise! Instead of using the listed spices, I just threw some Penzey’s Herbs de Provence into the mix.

Ingredients

2 cups of zucchini and/or yellow squash, diced (I like a combo of both)

½ c. onion, diced

½ of pan of Jiffy corn bread (or your favorite corn bread or use the link above)

4 oz. cheddar cheese, grated (honestly, I just grated a hunk of cheese without weighing it … so just add to meet your own cheesy preference)

1 c. chicken broth

1 t. garlic

½ t. thyme

1 T. garlic

Salt and pepper

Cooking Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sauté onion for about 5 minutes. Add squash, zucchini, and garlic. Cook all to desired tenderness. Mix in spices, salt and pepper shortly before you remove it from the heat.

Place in bowl, add cheese, and crumble the cornbread. Pour in about ¾ to 1 cup of broth (to desired consistency – should be dampened but not completely soggy).

Spray baking pan. Add cornbread and vegetable mixture. Cover with foil. Bake for about 30 minutes. Remove foil and finish baking until bubbly and crisp around edges. Then you let it cool slightly then eat it. Yum!