To Compete Well, Eat Well: Vegetarian Zucchini Pasta

Yesterday, I mentioned that I am a vegetarian. If you want to be technical, I am a pescetarian. The difference is that I do not eat meat, with the exception of seafood. I LOVE ME SOME SEAFOOD.

The reason for my slightly omnivorous lifestyle is mostly about food textures, but honestly - I just prefer vegetables to meat. You could make the fanciest steak in the whole world and I would just be like "eh." Meat, schmeet is what I say. I should also mention that a big part of my food preference is that I run so much. I do believe that what you put in your mouth counts. I try to keep it clean and light - and I conserve food calories so I can drink beer after I workout. (Kidding, kind of.) Seriously, nutrition is super important to me.

Since I love veggies so much, I have a pretty large garden in my backyard. A lot of my meals are provided by the kale, tomatoes, kohlrabi, zucchini, beans, peas, greens, strawberries growing there. It is also all organic. No chemicals, 'yo. I am always looking for new, tasty recipes for the bounty of veggies from my garden. I hate to waste (I don't waste - I compost) so I eat a lot of grilled veggies, salads, smoothies, etc.

Today, I tried out Zucchini Pasta - because I have an extremely overzealous zucchini plant in my garden. You can only eat so much zucchini bread and grilled zucchini, ya know? I overhead Clinton from "The Chew" demonstrating this recipe and I just happened to have all of the ingredients to make it happen! I didn't make the tomato sauce like they did - but otherwise - I followed the recipe pretty closely starting with this beautiful assortment from the garden:

One massive (still tasty) zucchini, cherry tomatoes, green pepper, garlic clove, red onion and a whole lotta love. The only other ingredients I used were a little bit of olive oil, sea salt and ground black pepper. Using a carrot peeler, I sliced the zucchini into "papardelle" style noodles. This was a lot of fun, actually.

 

Everything looks classier when you put it in a geometric white bowl! Even Cheetos. Next step, saute zucchini noodles in a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. In a separate pan, I cooked up the remaining veggies. I prefer my veggies to stay kind of firm and to keep their shape, so I never cook vegetables for very long. In fact, sauces are a little gross to me. Give me chunks or give me ice cream.

The noodles are done when they are tender. I took them off of the heat for a little bit and then put them in - you guessed it - a classy, white, geometric bowl. I topped it with my veggies, a turn of the pepper mill and a little bit of parmesan cheese. 

I have to say - this was delicious! I was surprised by how noodley the zucchini texture was! Simple, healthy and CHEAP. Those are the words I live by. Get cookin' people.