Crispy Squash

"Crispy Squash" as my mom calls them, are a family favorite.  They're very easy to make, delicious, simple, and so refreshing on an August night!  This recipe is taken from my mom's cooking blog, Savings for Sisters, where it was originally posted in 2013.

If you want to see a live tutorial, you can check it out on my Instagram Stories until it expires tomorrow afternoon.  I made them tonight for dinner and did a little vlog as I went.

If not, simple instructions are posted below.  Let me know what you think if you make them--they hold a special place in my heart!  Not only that--they are a crowd favorite.  My son, who literally eats about four food items (fruit snacks, milk, cheese, and bread) even tried one and swallowed it last night which is a big deal for him.  BIG deal.

CRISPY SQUASH

YOU NEED:

-Zucchini or Yellow Squash sliced 1/4 inch thick.  

-Beaten eggs (2 large makes one cookie sheet full)

-Finely crushed saltine crackers

-Melted butter

-Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1) Wash and slice the squash as evenly as possible and place in large bowl.

2) Beat eggs and crush crackers.  You can use a food processor or blender, or put the crackers in a Ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush them as finely as you can.

3) Spray cookie sheet or sheets with cooking spray.

4) Place cracker crumbs in a small, shallow bowl and eggs in a second bowl.  Don't add all the crumbs in the bowl at once, just keep refilling it, or it will get mushy from the egg and not stick as well.

5) Set up an assembly line with the sqaush first, then the egg, then the crumbs.  This is a great project for kids to help with.  Chloe loves being the one to put the squash into the egg for me.

6) First immerse a slice in the egg, then the crackers, coating well on both sides.  Then place them in a line on the cookie sheet.  Use a fork or wooden skewer or Pigtail to keep your fingers from being coated in egg and crumbs.

7) Keep going until you have as many as you want or your cookie sheets are full, beating more egg and crushing more crackers if you need to.

8) Once they are all laid out, drizzle melted butter over them.  It takes about half a cube of butter or so per pan.  Remember, this is in place of deep-frying them, and you need enough butter on them to help them brown up and get crisp.  So don't be too stingy even if you are trying to save calories, or they just won't turn out well!

9) Sprinkle each slice with salt and black pepper.

10) Bake at 375 degrees for around 40 minutes.  No need to turn them.  They will crisp up fine on the bottom as well as the top.  If you want to do two pans in your oven and it's not convection, rotate the pans partway through to ensure even browning.  I have also put both on the same rack with the two sheets overlapping just a tad and rotating them if needed.

11) Serve as soon as they come out of the oven.  They cool quickly!  If desired, you can dip them in ranch dressing, but we always eat them plain as our "vegetable" side dish. ;-)