Chicken Breasts with Zucchini Pappardelle & Hasselback Potatoes

So, it usually looks like all we eat are vegetables around here, since the purpose of starting this blog was to share what we do with our local veggies delivered from our CSA.  However, I promise you (and so does our scale) that we eat full meals.  So, I found two recipes on Pinterest that I thought looked amazing - and easy!  So, we prepared Chicken Breasts with Zucchini Pappardelle and Hasselback Potatoes.  We loved every bite of this meal!

Chicken Breasts with Zucchini Pappardelle (Gourmet, but found at The Bitten Word)


Ingredients
1 pound zucchini, trimmed
2 garlic clove
4 boneless chicken breast halves (I used skinless, but the recipe is with skin on. Go with your preference.)
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 tablespoons water
1 cup torn basil leaves (I went a little lighter than this, because it seemed like a lot of basil to me...)

Instructions
Slice zucchini lengthwise with a slicer or mandoline, and put into a large bowl.  Thinly slice garlic and reserve separately.

Pat chicken dry, then cut crosswise into thirds.  Season all over with 3/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.  Heat olive oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers.  Saute chicken in batches, skin side down first if you used skin, until browned and just cooked through 10-14 minutes total.

Add chicken to the bowl of zucchini.

Place the garlic in the skillet and cook, stirring, until pale golden, about 1 minute.  Add water and scrape up the brown bits left on the skillet.  Drizzle this mixture over the chicken and zucchini.  Add basil and 1/4 tsp salt to the bowl and toss until zucchini wilts slightly.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serves 4

Hasselback Potatoes (Apparently the swedish version of baked potatoes...  Wow - new potato favorite!)

Ingredients
4 large, baking potatoes
4 cloves of garlic, sliced very thin
olive oil
salt & pepper, to taste
dried parsley for garnish

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 F.  Slice the potatoes, from one side to the other, about 1/4 inch apart, but stopping short of going all the way through the potato.  Place a thin slice of garlic into each of the cut slices of the potato. Place the potato with garlic onto a baking dish.

Drizzle potatoes with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and dried parsly.

Cook for roughly 40 minutes or until the potatoes are crispy with soft flesh...  Serves 4.  So good!

Zucchini & Yellow Squash Quiche-ish

It isn't really a quiche, but I didn't know what else to call it, to be honest...  My mom was coming to visit for the weekend, and she got stuck in traffic for over an hour...  I knew she would be ready to eat when she finally made it and she's usually game for trying something new - plus she likes squash!

Ingredients
1 medium-large zucchini, halved and sliced
1 large yellow squash, halved, seeded and sliced
1/2 of a small red onion, diced
2 Roma tomatoes, sliced
4 eggs (We get a dozen of Dry Dock Farms fresh eggs each week, so this was a no-brainer!)
1/4 c olive oil
1 tsp baking powder
1 c baking mix (like Biscquick)
Grated parmesan
salt & pepper to taste

How to:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round baking dish.

Prepare your vegetables and add salt and pepper to taste.

Whisk together the eggs with the oil until they are nice and fluffy.  Mix in the baking powder and baking mix until it's combined evenly.  Then, fold the mixed vegetables into the egg mixture.  Pour into the baking dish and top with the tomato slices.  Sprinkle grated parmesan over the top, and place into the oven to bake.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until it starts to brown and eggs appear cooked through.

This was our main course, so it only served four big pieces...  And, I should have taken a picture before we dug into it.  But, we were hungry - it was 9:00 p.m.!  :)  I'll make this again, and may even try it with different vegetables.  It seems like any combination would work!

Zucchini Chips

So after being gone for a week and a half, I have a TON of veggies to use! Zucchini was one of the vegetables I had an abundance of, and I decided to try something new. I love my green bean fries, so I adapted the recipe for zucchini. It was just the right amount of flavor, and very yummy! It pains me to use my farm fresh eggs for just egg whites, so I used milk instead. Here it is:

Ingredients:
1 large zucchini, sliced
1 cup of skim milk
Italian bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350
Dip sliced zucchini in skim milk and then place on greased baking sheet. Arrange chips on sheet and then sprinkle with bread crumbs. Cook for 10 minutes and enjoy!

Zucchini & Yellow Squash Skillet

We finally got yellow squash in the CSA delivery a few weeks ago.  I love zucchini & yellow squash in the summer, and it's one of the first vegetable side dishes I was able to convince Mark to try...  And, he likes them!  Bonus!  Even though we've established that he likes them, I still like to give vegetables a little extra oomph from time to time.  And, when I give oomph, that means I add bacon and cheese...  This was delicious!

Zucchini & Yellow Squash Skillet (with oomph)

Ingredients
2 slices of bacon , sliced and quartered
1 medium zucchini, sliced and quartered
1 medium yellow squash
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 red bell pepper, diced to quarter inch
1/4 red onion, diced to quarter inch
1/3 c shredded monterrey jack cheese
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Place two slices of bacon in a large skillet and pan fry over medium low heat.

As bacon is frying, slice and chop the zucchini, yellow squash, garlic, red pepper and red onion.

When bacon is done, remove from pan.  Pour the majority of the bacon grease out, leaving just enough to coat the pan.  Add the chopped vegetables to the pan.  Cook over medium heat, until the onions and squash become chopped and translucent.  Turn heat to low, and crumble the two slices of bacon into the mixture and sprinkle the top with shredded cheese.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!

Serves 4

The bacon grease really adds a nice richness to this side dish.  We ate it alongside some homemade bacon cheeseburgers (so really I made more than the two slices, but you only need two slices for this dish!), and it was a great meal!