Zoodles

Pasta! Who doesn’t love pasta? Everyone loves pasta… except when pasta doesn’t love you or your body back. We haven’t had real pasta served in our home for quite some time – with the exception of Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese. I think there is a place and time for those delicious pieces of cooked dough, but we personally don’t indulge too often. In lieu of oodles of noodles, I attempt to serve spaghetti squash and spiralized zucchini, in hopes of having a more balanced, all in one meal my family will eat. I use this spiralizer to make my zoodles and carrot noodles. I’m hoping to try out sweet potato noodles at some point also.

I am still perfecting my my zucchini noodles. I can’t decide if I like them softer or more crunchy – maybe that will vary on the day.

We like to top our zoodles with pasta sauce, lemon/ pepper/ olive oil, and pesto. I have an affinity for pesto… like literally love it. But.. there are some problems with traditional pesto for me at least:

1. It has parmesan cheese. Tasty yes, but it hurts my stomach a lot unless it’s high quality parm and/ or homemade.

2. Pine nuts. Pine nuts, packed with flavor and healthy fats and protein. The issue is the bitter taste they’ll leave in your mouth. Several years ago, I had eaten some leftover pine nuts and pesto, and later that day and the next few days, I had this horrible bitter taste in my mouth. I thought something was wrong or my taste buds had changed which of course made me pretty sad. Thanks to a google search (not recommended.. always ask a professional), I found that these particular nuts can cause a slight reaction giving way to the altered taste. Ever since then I have avoided them in large amounts.

Therefore, I have researched recipes and made my own version of a Brazil Nut Pesto.

Zoodles + Brazil Nut Pesto 

Ingredients

• 2 Small/Medium Zucchini
• 1.5 C. Brazil Nuts
• 2 C. Basil
• .5 C Olive Oil
• 1 Lemon
• 1 Clove Garlic
• Salt & Pepper
• Protein

First, dice your chicken or other protein source and sauté until cooked through. Then, spiral the zucchini and put in a preheated pan with some salt and olive oil. Next, in a high speed blender, begin pureeing the brazil nuts, olive oil, and basil. Next, add in your lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Of course, if you want more basil or garlic, add those in also. Once your zucchini has sautéed for about 10 minutes, until tender, mix in the pesto and protein together. Allow the flavors to mesh, generally sitting on low heat for about 5 minutes and then server and enjoy! Optional: top with bacon.. because everything is better with bacon.