Squash Blossom Quesadilla

I got really adventurous in my gardening this year. I planted watermelons, pumpkins, squashes, etc... I currently only have one pumpkin doing its thang. All of the rest of the squash like objects have grown to about an inch and then withered up and died. The problem is that these same plants grow everywhere! They take up some major space and then they don't give me anything. Sheesh! A waste of my time and energy.

So, I googled pumpkin blossoms (aka squash.) Lo and behold you can use those. I figure if these stupid hugely growing plants are not going to give me anything I will just eat their flowers. So there! Which brings me to:

Squash Blossom Quesadilla (Makes 2 full quesadillas)

4-5 squash flower blossoms
1-2 cups shredded mild cheddar (or more depending on how cheesy you like them.)
4 flour tortillas.

Gently clean off the flowers in a bowl of cold water. Tear the flowers into pieces.  Heat up a cast iron pan. Add about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil.  Once heated, place one tortilla on skillet. Spread half of the cheese on tortilla.  Arrange half of the flowers over the cheese. Place another flour tortilla on top of the flowers and press down with your hand or spatula - just to flatten it out.

Once the one side is done - it won't take long, so don't walk away! Carefully flip the tortilla - you might have to use your hand to hold it together with the spatula, so you don't lose all your goodies. Wait a minute or so - again, don't walk away. Once brown and crisp put it on a plate. Cut into quarters using a pizza cutter and eat.

The squash blossoms added a little bit of pizzazz to the quesadilla. It was very subtle.  And it makes them colorful.

Apparently, squash blossoms are very good for you. You could definitely sneak them in and no one would really know the difference - especially if you served them with sour cream and salsa.

 So there you have it ---> Not only am I taking out my revenge on the squash plants; I'm being healthy, too. Who knew?!?!?

Till next time...

Ranch Chicken

Holy smokes! It's been over a year since I've done the blog thing. Talk about major slacker!

Anywhooooo...   I had a container of ranch salad dressing to use and no one was using for salad - for shame! I needed to find a creative way to use this dressing. I was NOT going to waste it! I looked through many cookbooks and all of them used dried ranch dressing mix.

Well shoot! I guess I need to figure out a recipe of my very own. And here it is:

1/2 cup ranch salad dressing
4 strips bacon
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or skinless boneless chicken thighs or a combo of both.)
Non stick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Microwave the bacon on a plate with a wet paper towel on top for about 3 minutes. Trim and cut up the chicken breast into 4-6 pieces.  Wrap each piece of chicken with bacon and place into a greased glass casserole.

Evenly pour the dressing over all of the pieces of chicken. Place baking dish in oven for 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

This recipe was/is amazing! And super easy!! It was definitely a great way to use leftover ranch dressing.

Till next time... And hopefully it won't take a year.