Zucchini Parmesan Bake

It has been a while since we blogged from the Pearce's Kitchen... sorry! Mom was in town so most of the week was spent shopping and eating at all of the yummy places Birmingham has to offer! Over the past weekend we headed down to Auburn for the AU vs Arkansas game... War Eagle - Ryan is very happy!

Now it is time to catch up and give you a delicious recipe that we had for dinner tonight and I am already craving to have again soon!

Zucchini Parmesan Bake

Zucchini after baking in oven

Before melting the cheese

Finished product and ready to be devoured!

Zucchini Parmesan

adapted and inspired from Handle the Heat

3 organic medium size zucchini, sliced in about 1/3 inch thickness (think coins!)

1 TBS olive oil

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs (or Italian if that is what is in your pantry)

salt and pepper to taste

Tuscan Sunset (penzey's spice) or italian seasoning if you don't have tuscan sunset

Couple of shakes of red pepper flakes (more if you like it spicy!)

1 cup organic marinara sauce (365 Brand if you have Whole Foods)

1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Spray non stick cooking spray on a large cookie sheet. Make sure that your zucchini is dry, then toss the zucchini in the olive oil in a bowl. Make sure that the zucchini is well tossed so each piece is covered in olive oil.

In another bowl, combine the bread crumbs, 1/4 cup of the parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and tuscan sunset (or italian seasoning if that is all that you have).

Begin dipping each piece of zucchini in the bread crumb mixture. Be patient, it may not stick all that well, but just try to get a good amount on each piece. Then place on baking sheet in one layer. Continue to "bread" the zucchini until all the zucchini is used. Place in over and bake uncovered for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Then remove from oven.

Coat a small baking dish (we used single serve dishes) with the marinara sauce (thin layer). Put a single layer of zucchini on top of marinara, SPRINKLE with mozzarella cheese, then add marinara on top, then another layer of zucchini, and top with mozzarella and a sprinkle of parmesan (if you have some left over). I put a dollop of marinara on the very top because I like sauce! Only do two layers of zucchini because if you do more than that it will get soggy.

Turn the oven down to 400 and back the small dishes for another 10-15 minutes, want the cheese to be melted!

ENJOY! This made 2 small baking dishes. Ryan and I each had one. This was our meal, so if you want it to be a side, then it would make 4 servings. It is delicious!

When I was home a couple of weekends ago I practiced using my camera some more. I still haven't really been trying too hard with food, but I am enjoying action shots! Here is Coby doing what he is the master at... catching frisbees! Look at the air he catches! He barely misses a frisbee and is incredibly FAST!

And this is Jaxon making a beautiful catch! Jaxon has a lot of grace in the air when he catches a frisbee, it is like he glides in thin air.

It was fun playing with the camera again over the weekend. I still need to work on photographing food, which I think is super hard (maybe it is the lighting in our house that makes everything look so blah)