Good Eating Tuesday: Baked Zucchini Fries!

I've decided to switch "Good Eating" from Mondays to Tuesdays!

My time is just busier on Mondays now and Tuesday's I have more free time.
So it's "Good Eating Tuesdays" from now on!

Our little 5-cup Mr Coffee died this week. 
Funny thing---about 6 months ago it gave us a false alarm and we thought it was going to quit then, so we ran out and bought a new one. (same model that has a timer to turn itself off.)

Then, it started working fine again, so we just put the new one in the closest. Well, it came in handy as the old Mr. Coffee gave up the ghost.
It was somewhere between 2 and 4 years old, so it served it's time.

Monday we had to renew my Military ID, which actually expired back in November. Oops! But redoing it in June now seems handier then having to worry about it in the middle of the winter holiday season.

Today's Good Eating Tuesday recipe is for "Baked Zucchini Fries."

I have zucchini outside pumping out zucchini's every so often, so perfect time to try!

Mine was a large Zucchini, about 10 inches, though the recipe calls for "2 medium zucchini." So, it made a lot of fries. 

Despite it's size, it was still tender inside with barely any seeds. It just plumped because of the recent rain.

When they get big like that and the seeds are also full-sized, those need to be used for like "stuffed zucchini," because they'll need the seeds cored out.

Being it was a large Zucchini, fries weren't as small and neat looking as the Pinterest photo, but they were Delicious! You roll them in a Parmesan cheese mix, which makes them yummy!

We had leftovers and reheated in the microwave they weren't crispy as right out of the oven, but still just as delicious!

Also because my Zucchini was so large, it took a lot more seasoning mix then the recipe calls for, so I had to keep mixing up small batches of it.

I've give you the recipe as is, but I didn't have any Panko bread crumbs, so I used a mix of cornmeal & flour for rolling the Zucchini strips in before dipping in egg, then just used the seasoning mix with just Parmesan and no Panko. 

For crunchiness, this worked just as well.

I think if you're just going to use the egg and seasoning mix, Panko crumbs would be a plus.

Be sure to use the regular type of Kraft Parmesan Cheese
for this recipe and not the fresh refrigerated kind, which is too chunky to coat the strips nicely.

(Photos are my own and you can see these get quite golden brown! I used dried minced onion in them and they were deliciously cheesy & oniony. I also didn't use garlic powder, but instead minced fresh garlic and scattered it over the foil to bake the strips on, because the garlic powder gives Hubby bad breath.)

Baked Zucchini Fries

Ingredients:

2 medium Zucchini

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup Kraft Parmesan cheese

1/4 teaspoon Paprika

1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/4 teaspoon Pepper

1/4 teaspoon Italian Seasoning (or Basil or Oregano work fine)

Optional: 1 teaspoon minced dried onion

Optional: 1/2 cup all purpose flour for first dredge.

(You can add salt to taste, but the Parmesan is so salty, I didn't think it needed extra.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking oil spray.

Cut ends of Zucchini's, then cut each in half and cut each half length wise, then slice into 1/2 inch strips.

Combine seasonings with bread crumbs on a plate or paper plate suitable for rolling Zucchini strips in.

Add eggs to bowl large enough to dip strips in and lightly beat together.

Optional: For extra crunchiness, arrange a plate with flour for dipping your zucchini strips in first before egg and seasoning.

You can add cornmeal to flour for more texture like I did.

Then dip Zucchini strips first in flour, if you're using it, then egg, then dredge in seasoning and place on prepared baking sheet.

(I thought getting each strip well-coated in seasoning used quite a bit, so don't be surprised if you have to mix up more!)

Repeat for all Zucchini strips. Spray the top of Zucchini with cooking oil spray.

Bake Zucchini strips 10 to 12 minutes on one side, then turn and bake another 10 to 12 minutes on the other side. Bake to golden brown. (A total bake time of 20 to 24 minutes at 425 degrees.)

Try it and enjoy!