Zucchini "Pasta"

I admit it.

I am anti-vegetable.

I'm trying to come over to the healthy side. Eat more veggies. Eat more salad. Eat less pasta and rice. Blah blah blah.

If I was in charge then chocolate and cookies and cake and pie would be what made you skinny and healthy.

Unfortunately, I am not in charge, and vegetables are what we have.

*Sigh*

That being said, I have been trying to be a bit more adventurous and find things that fool me into thinking I'm eating food I really want to be eating. For example - This Cauliflower Crust Pizza actually almost fooled me into thinking I was having real pizza.

Then, I was on Pinterest (Yup, again...) and saw some interesting ideas for zucchini and other squash recipes. This particular "recipe" sounded particularly intriguing.

I say "recipe" in the quotation marks because  it only has 1 ingredient. That's right. 1 ingredient.

Okay.....technically.....2 or 3.... but why split hairs.

Zucchini Pasta

Ingredients

1 medium zucchini

1/4 tsp salt

Pasta Sauce or topping of your choice

Directions

Using a vegetable peeler, peel strips off zucchini, working your way around the squash.

The strips can be as wide or narrow as you like. Keep going until you reach the seeds. (A few seeds won't matter but you don't want it to be too seedy.)

Put the zucchini in colander (or strainer), sprinkle with salt and toss to coat. Put the colander in the sink (or over a bowl) and place a bowl full of water on top of the zucchini to help press the water out (or you can use a plate and put some weight on top, ie: a can of food).

Leave it like this for at least an hour (and up to 24 hours.) (It gets more solid over time but the first hour is the most important.) I like to toss the zucchini about half way to make sure it  drains properly.

After an hour, rinse the salt off and either press out the excess water or spread the "noodles" out on a a few paper towels and pat dry.

Heat a medim fry pan over medium heat. If desired you can use a little olive oil - but I just sprayed the pan with cooking spray. Toss the zucchini "pasta" into the hot pan and stir fry until zucchini is heated through. Don't cook it too long or it will stick together and/or become mushy. It is quite delicate. You basically just want to heat it up.

NOTE - I didn't have pasta sauce the first time I made this so I simply added about 2 cloves of minced garlic and a tsp of olive oil to the pan when I stir fried it.

My verdict?

It was delicious!

With the pasta sauce on it I could actually almost fool my brain into thinking I was having pasta.

Seriously.

It was really good. Even with the olive oil and garlic it was tasty. Not as pasta-like as with the pasta sauce on it, but still delicious in it's own right.

Okay...let's be honest....you aren't going to fool the kids into thinking it's pasta BUT if you need to cut back on the calories and eat more veggies then try this.

My anti-vegetable days may be numbered. A few more dishes like this and I may become a convert.

Yes, I enjoyed it THAT much.

Just look at that pasta-like deliciousness!

Be sure to check out A Rosie Sweet Home for some great links.