Zucchini Noodles aka Zoodles

Have you guys had zoodles before? Apparently its a trendy thing right now for healthy eating people. Normally I would not consider myself a health-nut... far from it, really, but since being pregnant, I am eating a more balanced diet than normal. I planted zucchini in my garden for the first time this year, and it is really taking off. I knew that if I only used the zucchini to bake bread that Lee and I would be tired of it quickly, so I gave zucchini noodles, aka zoodles, a try.

Making the zoodles was super easy. Here's what I did:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cut off both ends of the zucchini, and *spiral it. See below for spiraling instructions.

Once my zucchini was spiraled, I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread out the zoodles on it. I sprinkled garlic salt and parsley on them and baked at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. I ate one of the zoodles prior to baking it, and the texture was good. I probably could've gone without baking them if I were in a rush, but I didn't want my zoodles to cool off my sauce, so I baked them.

Here's what my zoodles looked like on my baking sheet. 

I bought this garlic salt and parsley combination from Aldi, and this is what I sprinkled on my zoodles. 

After my zoodles were done baking, I separated them onto two plates for Lee and I, and topped them with grilled chicken and spinach garlic alfredo sauce. I had the sauce pre-made from a few days before, so I just threw some leftover grilled chicken, 2 handfuls of spinach in a skillet with olive oil, and then added my sauce to the skillet until it was all warmed up.

One medium sized zucchini was enough for Lee and I, but we didn't have any sides or bread with it (which we normally would when eating pasta), so I'd say one medium zucchini can feed 2-3 adults.If you're pairing it with my garlic alfredo sauce recipe, I would say you probably want 2 medium zucchini to use up all of the sauce, and that could serve 4-6 adults depending if you're serving your 'pasta' with a side salad, garlic bread, etc.

Here's my final product: Chicken, spinach, and zoodle alfredo.

*I ordered this spiraler from Amazon, and so far I really like it. It is small, so it doesn't take up a ton of room in my cabinet, and spiraling my zucchini was super easy. It also comes with this little brush that makes the spiraler easy to clean. The only downfall is that because it is small, I will not be able to spiral my larger zucchinis unless I cut them into smaller chunks. I haven't tried that yet, but I'll follow up and let you know how it goes once I do.

Show and Tell Tuesday: My Favorite Recipes

Today I'm linking up with Andrea for Show and Tell Tuesday to share some of my best recipes. I have all of these recipes posted on my blog already, so I'm going to link to them. I will warn you that I'm not a professional blogger, nor am I a professional photographer. I do this all for fun, so beware that all of these pics are iphone quality, but the recipes are delish. I have 4 that I want to share, so let's jump right in:

Italian Meatballs
These meatballs are a staple at our house. I have a little dry erase board on my fridge that I plan our meals each week before I grocery shop, and we have meatballs or some time of simple red sauce pasta close to every other week. I love that I can whip these up, stick them in the oven, boil some noodles while they're baking and dinner is done in about 30 minutes. These meatballs also freeze very nicely... so if you have some extra time, make a double batch and have half for dinner and freeze the other half... then the next time you have a busy night, all you have to do is bake the meat and dinner is served. Sometimes I'll even serve them with a side of risotto instead of pasta to switch things up.                 




Stuffed Peppers
Another fav recipe of mine are my Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Peppers. I make these all the time for family gatherings, and very rarely do I have to bring home leftovers. The cream cheese & cheddar cheese filling is divine, and then add in bacon and a little spice with the peppers... YUM. Next time you need a new appetizer to make, try these peppers!

S'mores Pie
My next favorite recipe is a dessert for you...S'mores Pie.This one is delish. A perfect recipe to try out in the summer when you want a s'more but its either too hot, or rainy for a s'more over a fire. This pie is super easy to make. If you like graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallow, you will love this pie.

Spin Dip

The last recipe I want to share with you is actually two recipes... Spinach Dip. I have a hot version (baked), and a cold version. I love the hot version with tortilla chips. My hubby prefers the cold version with wheat thins. The baked spin dip is my idea of comfort food, and Lee thinks the cold version is refreshing. If you need to make something up the day before and have it ready to go for company, then go with the cold dip. If you need to indulge in a warm, gooey snack with chips, then try it baked. The recipes are slightly different, but a large majority of the ingredients are similar. These recipes can be an appetizer, snack, or even a side dish. 

This post has officially made me hungry!! Try out these recipes and tell me what you think! 

Garlic Alfredo Sauce

Alfredo sauce... this one is garlicky, rich, creamy, and full of all things good. My sister-in-law introduced me to a similar recipe when she made her lasagna alfredo roll ups for dinner, and I believe she found that recipe here.  The blogger who posted this recipe hasn't posted anything new in almost 3 years, but I'm so glad her blog is still up, because her alfredo lasagna roll ups are divine. Once my sister-in-law made this recipe, I had to copy her ASAP! I'll be honest and tell you that the lasagna roll ups are amazing, but they are a lot of work, so I don't make them very often. More commonly, I just use this alfredo recipe and mix it in with noodles and chicken/seafood. If you have extra time to spend on dinner some night, try the recipe I linked to above. You will not be disappointed. I've adapted her alfredo sauce recipe to my own liking, and have used it to create several of my own recipes. So here's how I do my version of Mmm... Cafe's alfredo sauce:

Ingredients

2 cups heavy whipping cream (1 pint size carton)
2 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 heaping tbsp. pesto
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 block cream cheese (2 oz.)
Garlic salt to taste... I use a garlic salt grinder, so I don't have a measurement on this one

*I highly recommend a garlic sea salt grinder... I usually buy mine from Aldi's but I haven't seen them there lately, so I've also purchased from Wal-Mart. I also recommend using a fresh pepper grinder if you can.

*This makes a batch of sauce to serve a pasta dish to 4-6 adults. 4 adults if you like your pasta more saucy.

Start by melting your butter in a large skillet on the stove on medium heat. (While you're making your sauce, you may want to also bring some water to a boil and cook up your pasta so your sauce and pasta can be done cooking at the same time.) Add your cream cheese to the melted butter and let it melt as well, whisking the butter and cream cheese together. Whisk in all of your seasonings: minced garlic, pesto, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Next, whisk in your heavy whipping cream. You will need to whisk until thick- probably about 8-10 minutes or so. The whisking is the worst part, but the sauce is so good that it's totally worth your time. Last, add in your Parmesan cheese, turn off your burner, but let your sauce sit on the hot burner for about 3 minutes while it thickens up.

Then you can add your sauce to meat and pasta, veggie noodles, put it on a pizza crust, use it as a bread dip, or anything else that sounds good! I love to double this recipe and make two batches of sauce. I'll use half of it for pasta one night, put the other half in the fridge, and make an alfredo pizza with it later in the week.

Enjoy!

B.E.A.S.T. Sandwich

The BEAST... Lee and I got creative this week when we needed a quick,simple dinner. This sandwich was so good! This post is not so much a recipe, but more of a quick meal idea. The BEAST is like a jacked up BLT... its Bacon Egg Avocado Spinach and Tomato.

Here's how you make it:

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 ripe avocado, sliced
4 slices of bacon
a handful of spinach
2-4 tomato slices
4 slices toasted bread
Mayo (optional)

*This makes two BEAST sandwiches.

To make it, fry up your eggs and bacon. Make sure your egg yolk is cooked most of the way through, unless you don't mind a messy sandwich. Toast your bread, and spread mayo on if you like. Lee loves mayo, but I do not, so we make our sandwiches both ways. Cut your bacon slices in half, and stack your egg, bacon, tomato, spinach and avocado slices on your sandwich. Top with your second piece of bread. This sandwich could be served anytime of day! We have also made a similar sandwich before with bagels instead of toast, and it was delish. If you're like us and you enjoy quick, easy stuff like this for dinner, serve with some fruit or a side of chips and enjoy!

Baked Spinach Dip

Baked Spinach dip... this is a spin off of Kerri's Spinach Dip recipe. I've made it three times so far, and every time Lee and I like it even more.

Here's how I made it:

Ingredients 
1 bag (16 oz) frozen chopped spinach

1 pkg. dry vegetable soup mix (without noodles)

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese

1 c. (8 oz.) sour cream (you'll probably want a 16 oz container of sour cream, but you'll only need half of it)
1 packet ranch mix 
*1 cup shredded cheese (mozzarella, pepper jack, whichever you prefer) 
Several sprinkles of shredded parmesan

**Optional: 1 6.5 oz jar artichoke hearts. See below.

Dump your spinach in a microwave bowl. Micro on high 4 minutes, stirring and breaking up chunks after half the time.  

Don't drain water from defrosted Spinach. Stir in veggie soup mix, until vegetables are re-hydrated.

Place cream cheese in small, microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 1 minute at 50%  power to soften.  Mix in with Spinach and soup mix.

If you have 16 oz sour cream, mix in your entire ranch packet w the sour cream and stir it up. If you have only 8 oz. sour cream, then just use half of your ranch packet. Put 8oz of your mixed ranch dip in with your spinach, veggie soup mix, and cream cheese. Mix everything together well.

Stir in half of your shredded mozzarella cheese. Set the other half of your shredded cheese aside. Sprinkle some parmesan into your mix as well. *The first time I made this, I had this awesome cheese from Sam's club, and that cheese was the main reason I wanted to make a hot Spinach Dip.  Since then, I've made this dip with an Italian blend cheese and it was still great. If you want your dip to have a little kick, you could even use pepper jack. The options are endless.

This is the cheese I bought from Sam's club which inspired me to whip up a hot spin dip recipe, and my handsome cheese model who helped me grate it all up. The name of the cheese was Spinach Artichoke Jack.

Spray an 8x8 baking dish with Pam and dread in your mixture evenly. Bake for about 30 min total, but take your dip out of the oven about halfway through and stir it up. Stirring while it's warm will help break up some Of the cream cheese chunks. Then sprinkle the other half of your cheese across the top. Feel free to add more cheese if you want your dip to be more gooey. If you're a garlic lover like me, you can even sprinkle a little garlic salt on top. I have a garlic sea salt grinder that I pretty much put on top of everything. Finish baking your dip, and then serve warm with tortilla chips.

We've eaten this dip with tortilla chips, pretzel crisps, and celery sticks. All were great, but tortilla chips is my fav way to scoop it out. 

**The very first time I made this dip, I had this jar of artichokes that I drained, chopped up, and stirred into my dip before baking. The next two times I made the dip, I didn't have any artichokes, so I went without, and the dip was still great! I bought this little jar from The Fresh Market.