Zucchini Fries

I needed something to do with Calvin today since Collin is on nights and will sleep all day. Our kitchen is on the opposite side of the house as our bedroom, so I figured making these would be perfect and we wouldn't make too much noise. Of course, now that it's over and I'm writing this post I can hear a ridiculous amount of noise coming from the living room and I'm sure Collin is swearing in his sleep right now. Hey, at least I tried.

For starters, doing anything that is hands on with a 3 year old is bound to be a big fat mess...and once you add flour to that equation it becomes something much bigger than just a mess. Even though I knew this, I let him toss the zucchini into the flour bowl and cover them with flour. I just felt like I would prefer cleaning up spilled flour over spilled egg. Plus I just dust him off afterwards and then I don't have to change his clothes. Win-Win.

Anyway. I love that this requires cheese in the breading. And not only does it require cheese, but it requires more cheese than the Panko. Which, I mean, come on. That's a great start right there. This recipe is pretty standard in terms of breading something but, and she does warn you about this, the damn peel on the zucchini is a bit of a bitch about letting anything stick to it. I had to get a little rough...but managed to make it stick ok. You bread them all, stick them on a baking sheet, pop them in the oven and Voila! Zucchini fries.

I ate a lot more than four...

They did not all turn out as "pretty" as the picture. I picked the 4 best looking ones and went with those. Some were a bit patchy, some had super coating on one half and not so much on the other half...very homemade indeed. She tells you to dip them in either Honey Mustard Ranch or her Caesar dressing (both in the book) but they both include mayo and I really wanted to enjoy these so I went with Ranch out of a bottle (yes, I know how ridiculous I am). 

And enjoy them I did. These were my lunch. I had about 8 or 9. And I don't even care because there's a vegetable in there so really I had vegetables for lunch. 

Mmm. Vegetables.