Zucchini Italiano! GF, V, SCD, BED Opt’n!

Well I’m back up North in Wisconsin after a wonderful, wonderful weekend celebrating my friend’s wedding! They’re hitched!! :)

I was greeted with almost fall-ish weather! Our place is so far north (think, near Canada) that it’s already starting to drastically cool off! As I write this, I’m in blue jeans and a sweater! It’s about 65 degrees with a cool breeze off the lake!We still haven’t gotten the TV up and running yet, so my madre and I are going back to the sports bar to watch the Olympics tonight:)

lovely!

SO, for dinner, I was feeling like pasta – not good when you’re on the Specific Carb Diet – aka NO grains. You see, the dinner at the reception was delicious looking pasta – so I spent the entire flight home dreaming of how I could recreate it, SCD style. OK, maybe not the whoooole flight…I did spend a good portion jammin’ to the Biebs…and don’t worry, I kept the seat dancing to a minimum ;)

grain free!!

OK, back to dinner! Tonight, I tried my hand at Zucchini Noodles with a delicious Fresh Tomato Sauce! At the farmer’s market today, I got a HUGE zucchini – we’re talking, the length of my arm! Yeah, jumbo! My mind instantly jumped to noodles:)

GF, V, SCD!

Here’s what you need: (serves 2)

2 zucchini, spiralized or shaved into noodles with a veggie peeler

Sauce:
2 tomatoes with their juice
1 carrot, diced
1/2 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp dried basil and oregano
salt and pepper
fresh basil, chopped (garnish)

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. After you “noodlize” your zucchini, using either a peeler, mandolin, or spiralizer, squeeze them in a paper towel, and then put your noodles onto an olive-oil-sprayed baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Put them in the oven for about 30 minutes, until they become vibrant green.

what a sauce!

Meanwhile, on the stove, saute your onion in 1 tsp EVOO, with salt, pepper, dried oregano and basil. Add your carrot, and let it soften, about 6 minutes. Finally, add in your tomatoes and garlic. Let them cook for about 3 minutes. Mash with a potato masher, or put in the food processor to create your desired consistency.

zucchini?!

Top your warm zucchini noodles with the tomato sauce, or mix zucchini noodles in the pan with the sauce and enjoy!

look at those “noodles!”

This meal was fabulous! The texture of the zucchini pasta was so satisfying and spaghetti-like! Chewy and “slurpable” – just perfect! You could actually wind the “noodles” around your fork! I felt like a true Italian:)

wow. just wow

And the flavor was just marvelous! The sauce was seriously one of the most delicious things I’ve had in a long time. It was just bursting with flavor from the fresh, juicy tomatoes! The carrot added just the perfect sweetness to off-set the tomatoes’ acidity. (The carrot makes it so you don’t have to use sugar!) And the fresh basil finished it off just beautifully! Not to mention, adding a bright pop of green!

delicious!

And for my BED-er’s, use this sauce. It’s a roasted red pepper sauce that’s wonderful!

A truly wonderful dinner. OK, off now to watch the Olympics!

What’s been your favorite Olympic moment so far? Have you heard the rumor of a Spice Girls reunion at the closing ceremony? That makes me wanna “Zig-a-Zag-ah!” :)

See you tomorrow — when it’s my birthday! ;)

Need a food processor or a spiralizer? Here's the ones I recommend: