That moment in the day when you’ve realized you haven’t taken anything out for dinner, it’s too late to un-thaw anything…now what? Luckily I have a large zucchini from my mom’s garden on the counter, because I don’t know what I’m going to make with it, but THAT is dinner tonight! 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup fine whole wheat bread crumbs 
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
salt/pepper
3 tbsp Italian garlic and herb seasoning
2 eggs
1/2 lemon or lime juiced
2 med sized zucchini, washed, sliced into fries

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. In one dish combine whole wheat bread crumbs, panko, parmesan cheese, pepper flakes, poppy seeds, salt/pepper and Italian seasoning. Mix well until all combined.
3. In a second dish combine 2 beaten eggs and juice of 1/2 a lemon or lime.
4. Take a cookie sheet and line with foil drizzle olive oil over it.
5. Take zucchini pieces and dip in egg mixture, then dip in bread crumb mixture.
6. Place on cookie sheet and continue until all are coated.
7. Drizzle olive oil over top of zucchini fries and place in oven for 25 minutes turning 1/2 way through or until fork tender. 
8. Serve hot and dip in Chipotle Ranch Sauce.

My kids and hubs HATE and I mean HATE zucchini. I have tried so many ways to get them to eat it, by disguise by coating it, by any means possible. They won’t have it and some…(clearing throat) hubs, won’t even try it anymore. Ok, it’s either my cooking or he just doesn’t like it. Since I KNOW I am a good cook, I prefer to think the latter of the two

I decided to hurriedly cook these so that my kids wouldn’t see what I was doing.  Chopping, washing, dipping, and coating in a serious hurry. A mess? YES! But I was unseen by the kids, whew! I will trick them into calling these yummy things into veggie fries! Yes, I’m a genius, VEGGIE FRIES!

I get them all cooked and set out nicely on a plate and sit them on the table and continue with the rest of the meal. My younger son, Max comes in and sees the plate and asks, is it dinner time? I say, in a minute. He sees the plate on the table and I hear him mumble…MMMMM. I am thinking ok, I wonder what he thinks these are right?! My daughter comes in and say OH what are these, my first instinct is to say they are fries, ok I go with it..FRIES I reply. WAITING…WAITING….finally, she says can I try 1? I say, sure! She takes a bite and I hear it again…MMMMM. Inside my head I am SO doing the happy dance. She says, these are good, but I don’t think they are fries. I say, well they are veggie fries. She says ok, I like them. Now out of all the kids, her and my other son I mentioned before, Max are the ones that are going to HATE these. So I am feeling really good right about now. I call everyone now to the table, excluding the hubs, he is working. They all try the veggie fries and devour them in nothing flat. I didn’t even have time to get out the dipping sauce. I ask them, so…were the veggie fries good? My oldest son, Chris says ya, I really liked the zucchini. IMMEDIATELY I am like WHA? Wait SSSSHHHHHH! the rest of the table says, MOM, we knew they were zucchini. I guess I’m not nearly as smart as I think I am at concealing  the fact this was zucchini, but I was pretty smart to come up with a recipe that finally was a hit for the picky ones in  my home. Not 1 crumb, not 1 zucchini bite left standing. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!