Parmesan Squash Chips

Happy Happy TuTu Tuesday Peeps!!!

I bet you were expecting a Tuesday Times and not a real life recipe?!   I like to keep you guessing!!!

I made these lovely little yummies awhile back when our garden was lovely and lush and producing fresh veggies at a pace faster than I could consume.  Said garden is now shriveling in Day 42 of no rain and let's just say unless it is Okra, you ain't gettin' nuthin' from that garden!

Let's stop the reminiscing of gardens past and get on with this yummy yummy in your tummy dish!

Of course mine was done gluten free but feel free to gluten yo' self right up!!

Here's a quick list of what you'll need:

2-4 Small to medium yellow squash

1-3 Tablespoons olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

1 cup panko bread crumbs (or GF crumbs of choice)

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. garlic powder

Cooking spray

Dipping sauce of choice:  marinara, plain yogurt, ranch (whatever floats your boat!)

First things first: Preheat that oven to 450 degrees

Since I needed to make my own GF bread crumbs I used some nasty tasting hot dog buns I purchased. (I did block the brand name out of the photo- but seriously these things were horrifically bad!!)     I just tossed them in my handy dandy food processor and made some nice fine crumbs of them.

Take those crumbs out of the processor and measure out 1 cup of them.

(If you end up with more crumbs than you need, you can freeze them for later use)

Next thing you need to do is line a baking pan with wax or parchment paper and spray with an olive oil spray.

Now you need to prep those squash.  I pulled out my cheapo plastic mandolin slicer and sliced those babies up.  You need to keep them roughly the same thickness so they will bake evenly. 

After you have the squash all sliced toss them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Use enough olive oil to lightly coat the squash but it shouldn't be drowning in the oil.

In a separate bowl mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, oregano and garlic powder.

Just stick your hands in there and mix that up really good.

There's no substitute for some good hand mixing!

Now grab those squash and coat them in the bread crumb mixture.  Make sure you get both sides really good.

Lay those out on the baking sheet in a single layer.  No squash bunk beds here, they need to cook evenly.    

Now grab that olive oil spray and give those squash a nice light coat of spray and then pop them in the oven. We are going to cook them for about 8-10 minutes then we are going to flip the squash and spritz with the olive oil spray and pop them back in the oven for another 8-10 minutes. 

While those are cooking up you can take the extra crumb mixture (if you have any leftover) and put it in a glass jar and pop it in the freezer.  You never know when you will find yourself with some lone little squash just begging for a Parmesan bread coating!

(Yes, labeling is important)

Pull those babies out of the oven and remove them from the baking sheet with a spatula.

They are HOT so careful getting too excited and popping them into your mouth right away.  No really, don't do it, the roof of my mouth is still raw.  Let my pain be your example!

Now I grabbed me some nice fresh marinara sauce that I had so lovingly whipped up with our previously bountiful tomatoes and made myself a nice plate. 

I don't think we need to go into whether or not these are good do we?

Seriously these were so good and I'm so much hoping that my squash plants will produce again when the weather cools a bit especially since they are still alive in the garden.  I'll keep you posted!

So what do you think?  Are you guys getting rain where you are?  PLEASE send some to us if you're tired of it. Actually we're supposed to get a little rain tomorrow night/Thursday morning so I think California could use your excess rain.  

Alright folks, I'm yawning and I still have about ¼ glass of wine left to drink so peace be with you my peeps!!!

Samma out---

Peace, Love & Squash

p.s.  I still don't like the new PHOTOS app and am going to demand they bring back iPhoto