Monday, September 14, 2009

SPIRALIZER!!!!

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For my birthday P not only gave me a beautiful wine rack, but also a SPIRALIZER!!! Or, a noodleizer as we call it around here :) It is fan-flippin-tastic!
Here's the little guy in action:
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The first photo is of freshly noodleized raw zucchini- yum!
Dinner tonight was homemade pasta sauce with spiralized zucchini alongside stuffed mushrooms. Pretty darn good for made up recipes!
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Pasta sauce:
  • About a dozen fresh tomatoes, chopped (about the size of canned diced tomatoes)
  • 2 cloves fresh garlic, slivered
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • salt and pepper
  • a few red pepper flakes
  • 3 random peppers from my parents' neighbors' garden chopped into small pieces; sorry I have no idea what kind they were but here's a photo:

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I threw everything into a medium sized sauce pan on fairly high heat- about an 8 on my little burner :) I cooked it all for about an hour, reducing the heat as the sauce cooked down, eventually letting it simmer for the last 20-30 minutes, depending on how much liquid is remaining. When we were just about ready to eat I threw the zucchini in with the sauce to heat up. The spiralized zucc tasted almost like pasta and the angel hair noodle consistency was amazing. I can't wait to try the noodleizer with other veggies!

I made up this stuffed mushroom recipe after reading a bunch of others from cookbooks. I wanted to use things I had in the house and simplify the recipe along with making it healthier. Here's the mixture I used to stuff the mushrooms:

  • 1/2 pack frozen spinach, thawed and drained
  • 3 tbsp low fat ricotta cheese
  • 1/3 c bread crumbs
  • 1 tbsp pesto

I combined everything in the food processor and scooped it into 16 (give or take- I could have easily filled 20) mushrooms with the stem removed placed top down on a cookie sheet sprayed with pam. I scooped the mixture into the mushrooms and then topped with a little fresh Romano cheese. They baked for about 20 minutes- or until golden brown on the top- at 400 degrees.

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They were surprisingly filling and tasty. I'm not always a huge spinach fan so I'm always trying to find new ways to incorporate the green stuff into recipes without having the taste overpower everything else. Parker declared it a "repeater." If only the Bills had won, it would have been a perfect evening ;)

2 comments:

  1. WOW! What a great gift. Everything looks fantastic. Glad you ordered the polar- let me know how you like it! When you use the HRM, make sure you dampen it with a paper towel and shove it under the bottom of your sports bra (works best that way). The marinutta is seriously delicious! You must try it!

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  2. Enjoy the peanut sauce! It is so yummy...I could eat it every day!

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