Santa Fe Zucchini Pretzels

I know, that sounds horrific... It's just that I have a complete, utter, ABSOLUTE distaste, disgust, aversion - whatever you want to call it - for tomatoes in ANY form, and that obviously encompasses pizza... So I just can't use the word. But today I made a bread with vegetables on top, complete with a base sauce, and a slight little topping of leftover shredded cheese (from Nachoverload). It was one of those cupboard-and-fridge-cleaning-out types of recipes =)

WHAT YOU NEED:
For the bread:
1 packet of dry active yeast
1 cup warm-hot-ish water
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, spooned & leveled
Extra flour for dusting
Large zip-top bag

For the toppings:
Butter for sauteing
3 zucchini
1 onion
1 large garlic clove
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Basil, salt, pepper
Half container of Philly Santa Fe Style Cooking Cream
1/4 cup shredded cheese

HOW TO:
Make the bread:
Please refer back to my post on Homemade Pretzels, and just roll the dough out to a large square instead of dividing it into 8 pieces and making pretzels =)
Bake at 500 degrees for only a few minutes -- you don't want it completely crispy.
Turn over down to 350 for the next part.

Make the toppings:
(Start this early on, maybe while the bread dough is rising, otherwise your house will be at hot as mine was... And Baby doesn't like saunas. Neither does Husband!)

Saute sliced zucchini in 1 TBSP. butter over medium heat; add a little salt, and pepper like theres no tomorrow. (Always season every dish at every stage of cooking. *BEST* cooking advice I think I've ever gotten!!!!!!) And, stir, stir, stir!!! Once zucchini start to cook they brown fast!

In a second pan, saute thinly sliced onion with 1TBSP. butter over medium heat. Stir often! You can turn the heat off when they reach a golden yellow color, but leave on burner and continue to stir for another couple of minutes. Some smaller chunks might be a little browner than others, that's ok =)

Whichever of the zucchini or onion pans clear up first, use it to briefly saute the chopped fresh parsley, on medium-high heat, along with minced garlic clove, basil, and 1/4 TBSP. butter - just until the parsley is wilty.

Assemble:
Philly Santa Fe Style Cooking Cream goes on the bread first.
Zucchini are spaced to where you get at least one in every bite --
Ya-hummmm! =)

Before baking...

Next are the onions.
Then, the wonderful and fragrant spice mixture is sparsely dispersed on top.
Salt entire concoction, and pepper liberally!

...and After

Last, just a dash of cheese. (After all, this is not Italian. I was simply cleaning out my fridge and cupboards, and happened to get creative.)

SERVES:

How hungry is your family? ... Um, we got 12 squares out of it, about 3x3 inches each.

COST:
As best as I can calculate it = $4.76 (That's only 39.6 cents per square!!!)