I am an avid fan of squash of all types. In the Fall I bake every kind the Grower’s Market and Farmer’s Market have, mash it, freeze it in various sizes of Baggies and use it all winter. It is a low calorie, low carbohydrate substitute for potatoes, pasta, all sorts of things. I love it just as a vegetable with butter, salt and pepper, or covered with gravy, or used to bake breads, pies, cookies, cakes. I also eat lots of Summer squash. Zucchini (green and yellow) is great boiled, fried, baked, stuffed then wrapped in tin foil and cooked on the grill, etc. Patty Pan (or “flying saucer”) squash is also a favorite. These are the flat, white squash that look remarkably like the typical rendition of flying saucers.
Last week,at the local Grower’s Market, I bought two large, beautiful patty pan squash. The next day my Friend-With-A-Garden gave me several yellow squash (yellow zucchini and crook neck). That evening I fixed a favorite old stand by—stir fried squash, onions, sausage (Gimme Lean sausage substitute). The next evening I fried big slices of the patty pan and we had a dinner of left over stir fry plus patty pan. You REALLY have to like squash to eat a dinner that is 99 percent squash, but we do. Every day this week, for lunch I have had cold left over patty pan. I know that’s a little strange, but I like squash. Anyway, both squash dishes are very easy to fix. So easy, in fact, it seems a little silly to tell you how, but here goes.
Zucchini Stir Fry Recipe
Ingredients
- 1-4 zucchini, depending on how big they are and how much finished product you want
- 1 large sweet onion
- 1 package Gimme Lean sausage (or real sausage if you prefer)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pre-cook the crumbled sausage
- Cut zucchini and onion into bite size pieces Stir fry the veggies ( I do this with generous amounts of Pam) Add cooked sausage and seasonings
- Fried Patty Pan Squash
- Cut the stem and flower ends off however many squash you are fixing
- Slice (we like our slices roughly a half inch thick)
- Dredge in a mixture of equal parts corn meal and Parmesan cheese, salted and peppered to taste.
- Fry one side till done (again, I use Pam to reduce calories), flip and fry the other side.
There are some calories and grams of carbs in these dishes, but very few. It’s surprisingly filling food, won’t crank your glucose levels up, and won’t encourage weight gain but you also have to like squash!
