Friday, September 30, 2011

Yummy Side Dish

Last night we had sweet potatoes sautéed in coconut oil till tender/crisp and seasoned with salt. Delicious. This side dish is good with quinoa.

Here is a link for one of the best prices on coconut oil that I have found. (This is for a 2 pack of the 1.7 quart size, but amazon.com has great deals on smaller sizes, too.)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Got Zucchini?

Sorry for the long blog absence. We've been coasting on survival mode at our house for the last while. Tonight we tried something new, though, and I hope you enjoy it. We made zucchini "noodles" by cutting a zucchini in thin strips with a vegetable peeler.

The zucchini noodles were tasty, easy to make, and fun. They're obviously not exactly like a pasta, but they make a great gluten free, low carb/glycemic index, high nutrition substitute, and they taste great, too! You can peel them in wide strips for lasagna, or cut them to look like fettucini or spaghetti. You can use a vegetable peeler, a julienne peeler, a mandolin, or a special tool called a spiralizer that is designed to make vegetable noodles.

Some people blanche their noodles, but they're good raw and you can save a step and preserve the nutrients. After you cut them in the shape you want, you can sprinkle the noodles with salt and let them sit for half an hour to soften them up a bit. (Or skip that and eat them firmer, which we did, and they were still good.) Serve with any pasta sauce you like. We served them with a peanut sauce, but a lot of people like them with marinara. Here are three recipes using zucchini noodles, with lots of great pictures and ideas.

Zucchini Noodles with Chicken and Tangy Peanut Sauce

Zucchini Fettuccine with Tomato Sauce

Zucchini Noodles Marinara


By the way, according to nutritiondata.self.com, zucchini is "a good source of Thiamin, Niacin and Pantothenic Acid, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Folate, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc, Copper and Manganese."

Enjoy!