Wouldn’t you know it? I just made this great recipe and *DAAAANG* forgot to snap a pic before the pack of hungry boys scooped it onto their plates leaving nothing but a trail of destruction…and a bit of feta which i (of course) picked from the dish.  A girl could have worse problems, so i shall not complain.

Every year i can’t wait for summer, when salads suddenly become seasonally rich and wonderful – they become the centerpiece of my meal!  until….(cue dramatic music) i get bored.  It happens.  the salad dressings are ‘been there, done that’ and i want to experiment with more…but i don’t always have interesting things on hand…

I went looking for something…something to rescue the family from the endless parades of salads as their veggies supply chain. 

Well, here it is!  I found a similar recipe in a magazine, messed with it, and ended up with the following.  Now, my kitchen isn’t even CLOSE to America’s Test Kitchen – so please try it, tweak it, and report back!  add stuff!  make it YOURS, but for the love…please let me know so we can try it too!!

warning…i wrote this one the way I cook.  I just kinda ‘went with it’.  Try that.  remove the science from the cooking for this recipe and get all zen.  just be one with the fooooooood.  are you zen yet??

Baked Zucchini, Tomato, & Bell peppers * (*or whatever), oh yah, and feta.

a Zucchini (at least one, but remember, they come in all sizes, just go with it.) sliced not too thin.

bunches of sliced bell peppers (i used the little ones because i had them on hand, no other reason!), also sliced but not too thin…

about a pound of tomatoes.  less if you don’t have it (‘oooohhhhmmmmmm’ – feel zen??) cut them into nifty circles or even half-circles, no thincker than 1/4″.

green onions…some white part, some green part…

minimum 3 cloves garlic, diced (i used a press)

about 3 teaspoons chopped oregano

pepper to taste

a little bit of salt

less than 1/4 c of Olive Oil

feta cheese (I’ll say ‘to taste’ because daaaaaaaaang, it’s yummy!!) (i personally believe we should all just keep feta on hand. so there)

What to do:

• Preheat oven to 400

• grease a 9×12 baking dish – glass or ceramic works best (but i don’t for the life of me know why.)

combine bell peppers & zucchini, toss with salt & pepper.

in another bowl, combine garlic,green onions,  oregano, and feta cheese.

ok, time for the baking dish…

pour in the peppers & zucchini mixture, spread it evenly-ish in bottom of dish

Add tomato layer with a slight overlap if you are crunched for space.

Sprinkle with green onion/feta/oregano/garlic mixture…

drizzle with a bit of olive oil (unless like me, you forget this step because the fiendish children have interrupted your train of thought once again!!)  – note: it still came out great.  seriously, you can’t go wrong here.

Bake for about 30 minutes and then you had better get some, because it will disappear FAST.

in other words, serve immediately.

other ideas to try:

• artichoke hearts
• different varieties of squash
• add basil
• Layers: think like a lasagne: double the recipe and layer layer!

you’ll note i had made only a half batch for this, and was i ever sorry: there was none left for me!

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