When the boys were younger, Nana and Pa often ate at Pancho’s Mexican Buffet.  Yes, the restaurant that lets you raise the flag to request more food.  Calabacitas was not the boys’ favorite dish, but Nana loved it.  Since then, she’s spent years looking for a similar recipe, then she found this one.

By the way, the boys now like just about anything that Nana makes with squash.  If you want to try some recipes for yourself, check out her Chicken and Squash Mexican Casserole and Squash and Cornbread Casserole.  You can always stay simple and classic by trying her creamed yellow squash.  Are you tired of yellow squash and zucchini?  Try some of Nana’s recipes with spaghetti squash and butternut.

If you’ve been following Nana’s recipes for a while now, you’ll have noticed that she has taken the ¹/₃ cup of half and half out of the original recipe and added cumin and Rotel (canned tomatoes and green chilies).  If you don’t like her new changes, keep making it like the original post, and we can’t promise that she won’t change it again.

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchini
• 2 medium yellow squash
• 1 medium onion
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 fresh jalapeno pepper
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• 1 – 10-ounce can of tomato and green chilies
• 1 – 15-ounce can of corn, drained
• ½ cup Colby jack cheese, shredded

Instructions

• Dice squash into 1-inch pieces and rough chop your onions.
• Melt butter in a large skillet.
• Sauté squash and onion in butter for 3-4 minutes.
• Mince your garlic then deseed and dice your jalapeno.
• Add the garlic and jalapenos to the squash mixture, and sauté until fragrant (30 seconds to 1 minute).
• Add salt, pepper, corn, and half & half. Heat on medium heat for 5-7 minutes or until the squash can be easily pierced with a fork.
• Remove from heat.
• Sprinkle cheese over the top. Cover the skillet for 2-4 minutes and allow the cheese to melt.