Summer is finally here and my family has been busier than ever! My stepsons come to live with us through the summer, and we have so much fun with them, but it definitely adds a lot to my to-do list!
When there are single-digit kids in the house, it can be too easy to heat up some pizza bites or hot dogs for lunch (not that they would complain). But, with so many amazing, fresh fruits and vegetables in season right now I have been striving to come up with some healthy, tasty meals for them.
I am blessed that all 3 kids love fresh fruits and vegetables, but sometimes I get some mopey faces when I make an actual meal out of them.
One of my friends had given me a vegetable spiralizer for Christmas last year, but we only got to use it a couple of times before we lost it in our fire. We were gifted another one at our housewarming party, and have been using it several times a week to make tasty, healthy, veggie pasta.
Zucchini is my favorite vegetable to use in place of noodles because of its mild flavor. and how easy it is to slice up.
Even if you don’t have a spiralizer, you can still make zucchini pasta! A julienne peeler, or even regular vegetable peeler will give you long, straight noodles.
Once you slice the noodles, press some of the moisture out of them with a paper towel. The more moisture you can get out, the less “mushy” your finished product will be.
Heat some oil in a pan, then add the zucchini. Salt to taste. No one wants bland pasta. You will lightly sauce the noodles for just a couple of minutes until they are heated through. Less is more when cooking them this way, because it is a fine line between done and mush!
You can top these noodles with anything that you would use with traditional pasta! For this particular recipe I added some fresh, chopped tomatoes, black olives, olive oil, and a sprinkle of feta cheese. It is SO good! I used 1 zucchini per person eating, and there were NO leftovers.
So, if you have a bunch of extra zucchini in your garden this summer, don’t sneak it into people’s cars when they aren’t looking. Pull out the spiralizer and make some pasta!
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