Yay! The End of Summer…. Squash

No, I’m not happy it’s the end of summer.  🙁

But I am not sad to see the summer squash go.  🙂

I gave it my best but I was far too outnumbered to keep up with them.  Every week, with every new CSA bag, there would be more.  Zucchini, pattypans, crooknecks and mystery varieties of all shapes and sizes were building up in my fridge, on top of my fridge and on the counter.  The thought of grilling summer squash with dinner one more night became absolute torture. There is nothing wrong with zucchini on the grill but it can grow tiresome.  I knew I had to get creative with some additional ingredients to liven things up.

If you’re finding yourself here at the end of summer stuck with too many summer squash and not enough motivation to eat them, I have a few tasty ideas you might want to try:

1.  Grilled Pattypan Squash Pizzas

This is what a pattypan squash looks like:

They come in white, yellow and green.

Slice thinly to make your pizza “crusts” and grill on one side for about 5 minutes:

Then flip over, add your sauce, cheese and pepperoni and cook for about another 5 minutes (grill closed):

I used Applegate for pepperoni and Organic Valley for cheese:

 

2.  Buttery-Dill Summer Squash

Everyone knows that butter makes everything taste better– but I found the combo of butter plus dill raised this squash to another whole level of delicious.

I chopped up this squash but you could use any type of summer squash:

Add a couple of tablespoons of butter plus a liberal amount of dill:

Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the squash is tender:

If you want to make this extra-extravagant, add in some chopped cheese once it’s done and stir around so it gets all melty…mmmm.

Add some salt or garlic salt if you like.

This buttery-dill squash went perfectly with baked fish and sweet potato:

3.  Zucchini Lasagna

This is an incredible way to enjoy the flavors of lasagna in a healthier way– by simply replacing the noodles with sliced zucchini.  I’ve done it with eggplant as well and it’s delicious.

Per my usual style, I didn’t follow any official recipe.  I just layered the sliced zucchini with tomato sauce, pre-cooked ground beef and cheese.  Repeat this pattern until you reach the top of your baking dish.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Easy.

Goodbye summer squash!  Now bring on the pumpkins, butternuts, kabochas, acorns and spaghetti squash…

Wishing everyone a Happy Labor Day

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