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Category Archives: Lighter Fare

Buffalo Chicken Chili

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Veronica

I have Biz to thank for this amazeballs recipe.  I like a lot of different chili’s (this is the eighth chili recipe on my blog!), but this is definitely a contender for my favorite.  I love the heat level–we like spicy and for us this was perfect.  Spicy but not so spicy that you can’t taste the wonderful flavor.  Your lips may burn a bit, but you can still feel your mouth after eating a bowl, which is a plus in my book.

Since the veggies are pureed and totally not visible, there’s less risk of complaints from picky eaters.  I felt super manly while eating it, with all the meat and beans and spiciness, and apparent lack of vegetables.  But then I couldn’t pee standing up, so that was the end of my manliness.

Also, just an FYI, your chili will not be this thick right after cooking it.  This was the day after I made it, and before I heated up the bowl.  Not many things look good cold, but apparently chili is one exception to the rule. I think it’s so purdy.  (I believe I just lost my man card again.)

Buffalo Chicken Chili

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2 large carrots, peeled & cut into 1-2″ pieces
3 stalks celery, cut into 1-2″ pieces
1 large red pepper, cored & cut into 1-2″ pieces
5 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 pounds ground chicken
5 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 cup Frank’s Hot Sauce
2 (15 oz) cans tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz) black beans, drained
1 (15 oz) chili beans in sauce (do not drain)
salt and pepper to taste

Optional garnish: blue cheese crumbles or Spicy Ranch Crackers

Place carrots, celery, red pepper, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment.  Process until pureed and set aside.  In a soup pot, heat oil and add ground chicken and cook about 10 minutes on medium heat until no longer pink.  Add vegetable purée to chicken mixture and cook about 5 minutes until veggies start to soften.  Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 1 hour.  Serve with blue cheese crumbles or Spicy Ranch Crackers, if desired.

Nutrition Per Cup (without garnish): 239 calories, 3.4 fat, 29 carbs, 7.5 fiber and 23.5 protein.

Recipe source: My Bizzy Kitchen

***

I won’t be posting Wednesday, so I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you to enter my cookies giveaway by Wednesday at midnight. Good luck!

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24 Comments

Posted in Lighter Fare, Soups & Stews and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Paleo Orange Chicken

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Veronica

This dish is a revelation for healthy eating.  It has no breading, not even a thickener for the sauce, doesn’t require frying, is naturally sweetened with fresh squeezed juice alone, contains only healthy fat, and yet it is so. delicious.

And guess what?  It is yet another way to use virgin coconut oil!  I’ll be drawing the winner for the Tropical Traditions oil at midnight tonight (click here to enter the giveaway if you haven’t yet), so I decided to sneak in another recipe that uses it before I did.  I myself just got a gallon of it (happy happy, joy joy! Thank you to those who made first-time purchases through my links, that’s how I earned it!), so you can be sure I’ll be posting many more recipes using it.

Full disclosure: for the record, I mainly cook with/eat extra virgin olive oil, just so you don’t think I’ve devoted my life to saturated fat, even if it is a healthy one.  :)  Also, for the record, I am not on the Paleo diet, but am all for eating healthy.  And lastly, this was Den’s plate, as I had no rice on mine because I’m not eating starches right now. </TMI>

As for this chicken, I don’t have much to add beyond that it was incredible.  It is sweet, even without refined sugars of any kind, and packed with flavor.  I have to admit I totally forgot to include the sriracha (*sob* we love spicy, how could I?), which probably would have improved the consistency so that it coated the pieces a little better, but it was still great even without it. Who needs fried chicken pieces drenched in a sickeningly sweet syrup sauce when eating healthy tastes even better?  Move over, take-out!

Paleo Orange Chicken

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1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs (cut into bite size pieces)
3 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
juice of 2 oranges*
zest from 1 orange
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce or sriracha
3 green onions, sliced (white and green parts)

In a medium-sized saucepan, add the orange juice, zest, ginger, soy sauce, and chili garlic sauce or sriracha. Set over medium-high heat and let simmer to reduce and thicken while the chicken cooks. In a large saute pan, heat the coconut oil over medium high heat. Add the chopped chicken thighs and cook until a nice brown crust has developed on the chicken pieces, about 6 minutes. If your chicken pieces are really close together, you’ll likely have a lot of water in the pan (it doesn’t evaporate as well), and you should drain the excess liquid off to help the pieces brown.  Remove from heat and if the sauce is ready (it will be reduced to very little, coating just the bottom of the pot, thick and almost like a glaze), add the chicken to the saucepan and stir to coat with the orange sauce. Serve topped with sliced green onions.

*Taste your oranges. If they don’t taste orange-y, then neither will this dish. Use tangerines if you need to, or add a teaspoon of sweetener, such as stevia or agave nectar, until you’re satisfied with the flavor.

Recipe source: Health-Bent

34 Comments

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Barley with Butternut Squash, Apple & Onion

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Veronica

This is one of the “meals” (it’s really a side dish but I like to eat it as a meal) I’ve been making for years and usually resurrect come fall/winter.  My family absolutely loves it too, even my little nephew (or at least he did at 4 years old, the last time he ate it)!  I appreciate delicious vegetarian meals that satisfy me and this one fits the bill fo sho. The combination of the creamy squash, chewy barley, crisp red pepper & apple, and the contrasting savories and sweetness–it’s all just magic to me.  And I guess if a four year old boy will relish something that only contains unrecognizable healthy ingredients, it is pretty magical.

Barley with Butternut Squash, Apple & Onion

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3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 cup uncooked barley
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups butternut squash, peeled & diced
1 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup sweet red pepper, diced
1 medium apple, peeled, cored, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup fat-free chicken or vegetable broth

Bring 3 cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt to a boil in a medium saucepan; add barley. Cover saucepan and simmer barley until tender, about 30 to 35 minutes; drain.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add squash and cook, stirring often, until it’s starting to soften–about five minutes. Add the onion and red pepper and cook for an additional 3 minutes.

Stir in apple, garlic, thyme, black pepper and remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Cook, stirring, until apple is almost tender, about 2 minutes; stir in broth, scraping bottom of skillet with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits. Stir in cooked barley; toss over low heat to mix and coat. Remove from heat and serve.

Serves 4, about 1 cup per serving.

Per serving: 192 calories; 4.2 g fat; 0 g cholesterol; 37 g carbohydrate; 8 g fiber; 5 g protein; 5 Points Plus

Recipe source: WeightWatchers.com

24 Comments

Posted in Lighter Fare, Meatless, Side Dishes, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Quick Veggie Quesadillas

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Veronica

Secret Recipe Club

This month for the Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned to Itzy’s Kitchen.  Erica lives a healthier lifestyle than I’m living now (she’s a fitness instructor and has lots of yummy, healthy eats on her blog), so browsing her blog got me back into the “healthy thinking mode.”  I wish I didn’t have a switch that was either turned to “healthy” or “totally heart-clogging, butt dimple-building unhealthy,” but unfortunately, this is my history.  I have decided to ease myself back into healthier eating as I need to lose the fifteen or twenty pounds I’ve gained since going off the rails in March, and Erica helped me do that.

I have been making quick stove top meals often this summer, and I was happy to find her recipe for veggie quesadillas because they were 1) healthy, 2) quick, ad 3) easy.  Perfect summer eating.

We really enjoyed these, especially dipped in salsa.  They come together so fast and easy and I know I’ll be making this again.  FYI, if you have leftover filling, it’s great as a hot dip mixed with salsa with cheddar melting on top. But maybe not as healthy if you use as many tortilla chips as I did. >:)

Quick Veggie Quesadillas

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Printable recipe with picture

1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed & drained well
1 (11 oz) can Mexican style corn (or 14.5 oz regular corn), drained well
1 teaspoon chili powder, or to taste
¼ teaspoon cumin
Optional: 1 cup additional vegetables
8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
8 flour tortillas (soft-taco size)
Salsa & sour cream for serving

Mix the black beans, corn, chili powder & cumin. If you’d like to add any other vegetables (I added onions), cook them in a skillet until softened and stir into the bean & corn mixture. Place one tortilla in a skillet over medium heat (you can oil the skillet if you like, but I didn’t) and sprinkle no more than ½ cup cheese over it, then scatter no more than ½ cup of the bean mixture over the cheese. Top with another tortilla. Once the cheese is melted on the bottom, about two minutes, carefully flip the quesadilla over and cook for an additional two minutes to heat through and crisp up the other tortilla. Remove to a plate and cook the remaining three quesadillas. Cut each into 6 triangles and serve with salsa and sour cream, if desired.

Recipe source: adapted from Itzy’s Kitchen



A special thank you to my friends Kriss and Nicole for generously giving me the Japanese steak plates pictured in this post, along with  many other dishes that will be gracing my blog in the future.  They are moving their family to Japan this week and not taking much with them, so I was the happy recepient of much of their dishware. It’s hard to say goodbye and feel like I have to do it too often (Japan has already stolen one of my friends!), but I wish you guys the best!

41 Comments

Posted in Lighter Fare, Meatless, Mexican. Bookmark the permalink.

Greek Chicken with Tzatziki

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Veronica

I took the above photo on a cold day in February, when there was only about five minutes of daylight left.  I’m sorry if it looks  a little unappealing, it seems somehow off to me but since I started with this:

I can’t be sure. It was just so bad to begin with that I’m really happy I got it to come this far! lol

If the photo doesn’t entice you to try this, maybe it will help to know how delicious it is.  I love the tangy yogurt sauce with the tender, flavorful chicken–it’s just perfect.  And it goes great with the Greek Salad I posted yesterday!  If you don’t want to heat up your kitchen, just slide the pieces of meat onto skewers and grill them. (If using wooden skewers, please soak them in water for half an hour so they don’t catch on fire during grilling.)  Bet they’d taste even better off the grill!

Greek Chicken with Tzatziki

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Printable recipe with picture

Chicken:
1 ½ lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley
¼ teaspoon coriander
Salt and pepper

Tzatziki:
1 medium cucumber
1 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons dried dill weed
2 teaspoons minced garlic
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Mix the oil, juice, vinegar, and seasonings together and marinate the chicken for 30 minutes but no longer or the texture of the chicken will change and won’t be as good.

While the chicken marinates, prepare the Tzatziki. Slice the cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and pulp and discard. Shred the cucumber (you should get about 1 cup of cucumber), then wrap in several layers of paper towel and squeeze it dry. Mix with the remaining ingredients and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, then place a cooling rack on top of it. Spray the rack with oil, then remove the chicken from marinade and place on the rack. Dab the remaining marinade over the top of the chicken pieces. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve with tzatziki and Greek Salad.

Recipe source: Eat Little, Eat Big

15 Comments

Posted in Lighter Fare, Meats, Mediterranean and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Greek Salad

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Veronica

Since this is my first blog of the week, I hope you’ll forgive me for skipping Thankful Thursday in favor of a recipe for Greek salad.  I made it months ago and kept forgetting to share it, but now that the weather is heating up and cool, crunchy salads are especially appealing, I knew it was now or never.

I’ve eaten a lot of Greek salads at restaurants and they are always lettuce salads with kalamata olives, red onions, tomatoes, and feta cheese.  This salad has the same elements but the lettuce is replaced with chopped peppers and cucumber.  The result is a crunchy, more fulfilling salad–it really feels like you’re eating something other than air with some toppings.  And it’s so delicious!  My husband’s favorite salad is a Greek salad and he really went wild for this, somehow managing to eat all but the little bit I managed to grab for myself before he basically confiscated the whole bowl and started murmuring, “My preeeecious.”

It makes a wonderful side dish for a Mediterranean meal and I’ll be sharing the recipe for the chicken I served it with tomorrow.

Greek Salad

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

Dressing:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic (from a jar is fine)
2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper

Salad:
1 large cucumber, quartered lengthwise, seeds removed then chopped
1 ½ cups chopped tomatoes
12 large kalamata olives, quartered
1 cup diced green pepper
¾ cup thinly sliced red onion
3.5 oz good quality feta cheese, diced

Mix the dressing together and store at room temperature until ready to serve, preferably overnight to allow the flavors to develop. Combine salad ingredients, shake the dressing and add half of it, then gently stir everything together. Add more dressing to taste.

Recipe source: Eat Little, Eat Big

***

P.S. As you can see from the video ad below, I’ve been approved for participation in WordPress’s WordAds program.  I’ve been blogging with WordPress for more than two years without having any affiliates or any other monetary support.  I never thought I would want ads on my blog, but I applied for this program on a whim since applying doesn’t mean you’ll get accepted or that you even have to do it if you get accepted.  I was approved and I decided to try it out on a trial basis.  The two commercials I have watched were tasteful and well done, one was actually really informative, comparing our country’s standard of living to other countries with statistics, and I do like that it is optional to my readers to watch them, so I hope you enjoy the ads you do choose to watch.

My reason for not having ads until now has been a fear of turning my blog into work instead of something I do for fun, turning my concentration from creativity to money.  So far there’s no difference in my thinking, so maybe I can make a few cents while I’m having fun without it spoiling my fun. :)

17 Comments

Posted in Lighter Fare, Mediterranean, Salads, Side Dishes. Bookmark the permalink.

Watermelon Black Bean Salsa

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Veronica

For the Holiday Recipe Club‘s Memorial Day blog hop, the secret ingredients to choose from were watermelon, beer, and pork.  I think I’m on a salsa kick because my last recipe for the HRC on Cinco de Mayo was for Fresh Mild Salsa, and the first thing I thought of when I saw that watermelon was one of the ingredients for Memorial Day was the salsa recipe my hair dresser gave me back in February.  I have been craving it ever since I read the recipe, imagining how wonderful it must taste, and I was trying to wait until watermelon were truly in season here in Wichita to try it (that happens in August for us), but with the added incentive of the Holiday Recipe Club blog hop, I knew the time had come.

This stuff is the bomb, yo!  The only change I made was to add in some lime juice, which I feel was essential to achieve the salsa flavor and balance the sweetness of the watermelon.  The beans, which may seem strange, are somehow a perfect fit with the flavors & textures.  I could eat this as a meal, it is so good!  It is juicy, and seriously addictive.  It is, however, best if eaten within four hours of making it as the watermelon leaks more and more water and becomes mushy after a while.  To serve this at your Memorial day barbecue or another gathering,  just have the watermelon prepped in a separate container than the other ingredients, then stir them all together and refrigerate an hour before serving and you’ll have a bowl of salsa perfection ready to wow your guests.

Watermelon Black Bean Salsa

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Printable recipe with picture

2 cups diced seedless watermelon
3/4 cup finely diced sweet onion
3/4 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely diced
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
Juice from 1/2 a lime
2 teaspoons brown sugar, packed
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Tortilla chips

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients but the chips. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Drain if necessary before serving. Serve with chips within 2-3 hours of making.

Yield: 3-1/2 cups.

Veronica’s Note: I advise wearing latex gloves when handling and dicing the jalapenos, as the oils can burn your skin.

Recipe source: Jennifer L.

A big thank you to Erin for creating this club!  I’m having a lot of fun with it.  If you’d like to join or find out more, check out the Holiday Recipe Club website.  And don’t forget to check out the other Memorial Day recipes by clicking the linky frog below.



29 Comments

Posted in Condiments & ETC., Holiday Recipe Club, Lighter Fare, Snacks & Appetizers and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Veronica

I’m still on vacation but, SURPRISE!  I had another blog scheduled.  :)

This is one of the fabulous recipes I made on the first cycle of the 17 Day Diet, one that I would eat whether I was on a diet or not, and one I intend to eat again soon.  I doubt it is any sort of copycat PF Changs recipe, but it is good, nonetheless, and doesn’t use any pre-made, packaged sauces for flavoring, which is the main reason I chose this recipe over others.  I didn’t want the sugar you find in those sauces!  I did think it needed a hint of sweet to compliment the other flavors, so I added some stevia, but that’s totally optional.

This recipe makes a large family-sized batch, and I took it for lunch a couple days.  Eating lettuce wraps with a dipping sauce is a bit messier than I’d like for a work lunch, so I just put a bunch of lettuce in a bowl then heated the filling at work and dumped it on top, then drizzled the sauce over.  And voila!  Asian Lettuce Wrap salad.  The easier way to eat lettuce wraps!

Asian Lettuce Wraps

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Printable recipe with picture

2 teaspoons olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh shredded ginger
20 oz 97% lean ground turkey (or ground chicken breasts)
5 oz mushrooms, finely chopped
½ teaspoon kosher salt
4 cups bagged coleslaw mix or finely shredded cabbage
1 (8 oz) can water chestnuts, drained, and finely minced
1 cup thinly sliced green onions
¼ cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 packet NuNaturals stevia powder, or other sweetener to taste
1 lemon, zested and juiced
½ to 1 teaspoon sriracha (optional)
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1-2 heads iceberg lettuce

Dipping/Drizzling Sauce
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons water
1 packet NuNaturals stevia powder, or 2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoons fresh shredded ginger

Heat an extra-large skillet to medium-high heat on the stovetop. When hot, add oil and then garlic and ginger. Saute for about 30 seconds, or until fragrant, then add the turkey, mushrooms, and salt. Cook for about five minutes, breaking the turkey up and stirring often until it is cooked through. Drain off the broth, and add the cabbage, water chestnuts, and green onions. Cook until the cabbage is wilted, about 2 minutes, then add the soy sauce, sesame oil, stevia, lemon zest and juice, and sriracha if desired. Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro.

To prepare the dipping sauce, combine all the ingredients and whisk to combine.

To serve, carefully remove each individual leaf from the head(s) of lettuce, place chicken mixture on the leaves and serve with sauce.

Recipe source: adapted from Our Best Bites

Secret Recipe Club

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Avocado Chocolate Pudding

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Veronica

You may have noticed I’m no longer posting regularly.  I have a feeling that’s how VC will be from now on, with periodic posts when I have the time.  While I hope my sporadic posting doesn’t bother any of my readers, I likely wouldn’t begin to post regularly for your sake at the expense of my own, so it would help my conscience out a lot if you would just be OK with it.  Thanks. :)

Onto the pudding.  I know it sounds weird, but you just have to try this to believe it how good it is.  Even my avocado-hating husband loves this pudding!  Basically it’s just avocado blended up with cocoa powder and agave nectar to create a sweet, silky, perfectly chocolate-y pudding.  No dairy, no refined sugar, no gluten, no cooking, just blending and eating of the most delicious & wholesome dessert ever…refrigeration totally optional.  We couldn’t wait and ate ours as soon as it was blended and it was fabulous.  But I bet it would be even better cold.

Chovocado Pudding

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 ripe avocado
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup raw agave nectar
1/4 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peel and quarter the avocado. Put all the ingredients in a Magic Bullet or food processor and blend until smooth. Serve and enjoy!

Recipe source: Forgiving Martha

26 Comments

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Zucchini Spaghetti

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Veronica

**I apologize to subscribers for the weird “password protected” post that came to your inbox or feed early this morning!  It was me just being a spaz, but I’ve got this “top secret” recipe now set to public visibility instead of password protected.  Sorry to disappoint if you thought my zucchini spaghetti recipe must contain codes to reveal a huge conspiracy theory, but I hope you’ll find the delicious recipe is quite enough to get excited about in and of itself.  :) **

Have you been wondering what ever happened to the weight loss contract and the 17 Day Diet?  Join the club–I’m wondering too! :D  We did save a good amount of money with the contract, though we only actually stuck to the agreements made in it for like a week.  And we ended up with a bunch of emergencies (car stuff, etc.) that most of the money went toward.  We did much better with the 17 Day Diet and stuck with it for over a month, but soon after got to the third 17-day cycle, which allows for a wider range of foods, we cheated our way into widening the range to all foods, and in great abundance.  Soooo, I think I lost 15 pounds and gained most of it back.  Story of my adult life.  I pretty much diet half the year so I can eat like a pig the other half.  It kind of works for me.

Anyway, this “spaghetti” was the romantic Valentine’s Day dinner I made while we were on the first cycle of the 17 Day Diet, which allows for no starches except for fruit.  The lean meats allowed are minimal as well (turkey, chicken, and fish) and I was challenged to come up with a 17 Day Diet-friendly recipe that would be really delicious and impressive.  Debbi posted her version of Kalyn’s zucchini spaghetti and I knew I had a winner.  And wow, I was right!  This was the most delicious thing we ate during the entire diet, and I would even say it’s one of the most delicious meals I’ve eaten in my entire life.  The sauce is just spectacular (it would be great on real spaghetti, too) and the zucchini is perfect here.  I always have thought zucchini was a vegetable best suited to Italian seasonings and this recipe further proves it.   I can’t even tell you how much I love this dish!

A funny thing about the “spaghetti” strands.  The only julienne slicer I could find was this one, which also has three other cutting blades.  For some reason, I didn’t look at the owners manual and thought that the crinkle cutter was the julienne blade.  I was so frustrated with the slicer, thinking that it was just a poor product, because every time I “julienned” a zucchini, I had to go back and cut the strands apart because the stupid julienning blade was just cutting crinkle-cut slabs.  DUH!  Seriously, I didn’t figure out my mistake until just this week when I finally opened the owners manual and saw that there was another blade that I had missed.  The one for julienning veggies.  DOY.

If you don’t have a julienne cutter, The Pampered Chef has a julienne peeler for $10.50 that I’d recommend–it won’t take up a lot of space and does a fabulous job of julienning your veggies.  I got one and gave the other cutter to Goodwill because, well, you guys know I don’t even have room for my cake pans in this house, so I’m  not about to give up good space for a bulky cutting tool when I could just use Pampered Chef’s fabulous peeler!  Thanks, Tracy (my Pampered Chef consultant)!

Zucchini Spaghetti

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

3 links low-fat turkey Italian sausage, hot or mild
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
3 large cloves of garlic, minced + 4 more to season the oil
pinch hot pepper flakes (optional)
1 (14.5 oz.) can roasted diced tomatoes with juice
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon fennel seeds
2 medium sized zucchini (9-10 inches long)
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (for seasoning zucchini)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving, if desired

Heat about 1 tablespoon olive oil in a heavy frying pan, then add turkey sausage, squeezed out of the links, and use a spatula to break the sausage apart and cook until it’s lightly browned, about 5 minutes. When the sausage is browned, add 3 cloves of minced garlic, and hot pepper flakes, if using. Stir together and let cook with the sausage about a minute, then add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, fennel, basil, and oregano. Turn heat down to low and let the sauce simmer while you prep the zucchini.

Use a julienne cutter to cut the zucchini into long spaghetti-like strands. (Cut off the ends, wash and dry the zucchini, and then cut into julienne strands. You can also do this with a knife if you’re patient.)

Heat about 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat in a very large frying pan, add 3 whole garlic cloves and sauté until you can start to smell garlic, then remove garlic to another dish (you can discard it, but fried garlic cloves are delicious and you can add them to salad or even eat them straight!) Immediately add the zucchini strands to the hot pan and cook stirring a few times just until the zucchini is heated through, about 2 minutes. Season the cooked zucchini with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Divide between 2-4 plates, then ladle sauce over the top. Serve hot, with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

Recipe source: adapted from Kalyn’s Kitchen, as seen on Debbi Does Dinner

19 Comments

Posted in Italian, Lighter Fare, My Favorites, Pasta and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
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