Grilled Zucchini Pizza Slices

Today's pin is Grilled Zucchini Pizza Slices from Kaylyn's Kitchen.

Friday is pizza night at our house.  Sometimes we make pizza at home. Sometimes we do take out or delivery.  Sometimes we eat it in a restaurant.

We started it a few months ago and it has become a popular tradition. I've been surprised just how popular. We've had kids disappointed when a friend's birthday party falls on Friday night. Yesterday, Brady was completely set on bringing sack lunches and dinner to marching band camp - I think he really loves the socializing and down time, but also worries about being on time (all good things). Then he realized it was pizza night. So when I asked him what he wanted to do he told me he either wanted to come home or have us bring pizza to him.

I started doing these zucchini recipes more than a week ago so I could be a little more prepared. It's a good thing for me, but it worked very well this week for him as well, because no matter how good Grilled Zucchini Pizza Slices are they will still not compare with a normal pizza in a teenage boys mind.

So the recipe...

First, the recipe calls for pizza sauce. I never buy pizza sauce.  It's just too easy to make it and it's less expensive. Almost always I use some canned tomato sauce. Sometimes I add fresh or  frozen tomatoes from my parent's garden. Sometimes I throw in diced tomatoes. Add pizza seasoning, simmer for awhile and I'm done! So I put that on to simmer.

Next you cut the zucchini in 3/4 inch slices.  Well, I'm sitting there thinking if the zucchini is too large there may be a bunch of big seeds you will want to come out and then you have a hole in the middle of the slice. When I looked at the pictures on the blog it looked like fairly big slices given the number of pepperoni slices on each. Maybe this is a different type of zucchini with smaller seeds? Maybe she doesn't care about the seeds?  I don't know, but with the size of our seeds it didn't seem pleasant to eat them.

So I cut a few small zucchini up while explaining my thoughts to Rex.  He suggested we also try slicing the zucchini lengthwise to get slices. So we tried that next.

Ha! And now as I am reading the recipe over to help me make this post I see that she covered how to deal with the large seeds and how to cut it. Guess I missed that. Maybe that's why I'm not a better cook.

We debated on whether we should really cut them 3/4 inches thick. While we like zucchini we don't love them. So some of the slices we cut 1/2 inch and for the sake of doing this recipe properly we cut most of them 3/4 inch thick. After brushing them with the oil we grilled them like called for.

They reminded me of grilled pineapple which I definitely recommend trying!

I have no idea why the picture is sideways!  I've tried several times and it leaves my computer right side up!

They looked good when they were done. These pictures just don't do them justice.

Rex, Brady and I loved them and gave them a thumbs up. I was surprised just how much like regular pizza they are. Krista was not fond of them. Gavin seemed neutral on them though he is against the idea they were made with zucchini. He says, "If they didn't have zucchini on them they would be good."

Verdict: definitely a winner as written.  Cutting them in 3/4 slices was perfect as the smaller slices became too mushy. You want to make sure you grill them just to tender or tender crisp, no further. Keep in mind that you will need to grill it a second time.

Zucchini Soup

My first pin is from Lil' Luna.  Zucchini Soup. It looked good and simple.  Something right up my alley.

I feel like an allrecipes.com reviewer with this.  When I started making it (yes I don't read before making usually) I realized it used  more oil than I would.  I cut down the oil to 3 T, though normally I would have done only 1 or 2, especially with the high water content of zucchini & onions. 

Kristyn doesn't like onions so she used onion salt. She said if you wanted to you could cook onions with the meat or zucchini.  I cooked a diced medium onion with the sausage.

When I got it together I was excited to try it.  I found it kind of bland.  So I added some garlic.  Still wasn't enough for me.  Maybe I'm getting old and losing my taste buds! I know the oil would have added some flavor had I used more, but not the flavor I felt it was missing. So I tossed in some pizza seasoning and then I really liked it.

With the seasoning the soup got mixed reviews.  Gavin (11) didn't like it. Well, he said he didn't like it, but his actions showed he was neutral and I think he has something against zucchini. Krista (14) and Brady (17) were so so on it.  Rex and I liked it.

Verdict: I'd make it again, but it HAS to have extra seasoning.