Zucchini Noodles

Hey y'all!
I'm Kenna, a 23 year old grad student and full-time nanny who loves to cook. I am definitely a huge fan of sharing recipes with friends and family members, and am open to (hopefully!) sharing them with strangers as well. I get a lot of recipe inspiration from many cooking blogs, cookbooks, and Pinterest, but I am often the kind of cook who reads a recipe and then adapts it to suit my own tastes (or whatever I have on hand that day!) I am also in the process of becoming a cleaner eater. I really like making dishes that are healthy but do not skimp on flavor, because honestly, if it doesn't taste good, I'm not going to eat it!

 For my first post, I decided to take a stab at making zucchini "noodles". I have seen recipes for using zucchini instead of actual pasta all around Pinterest, and am personally a huge fan of anything in the squash family, so I thought it was high time to finally put all these recipes I've been reading to the test! The recipe for the zucchinni noodles is as follows:

 Zucchini Noodles
You will need:
- 2-3 medium zucchini (or plan accordingly for however big your family is- the serving size is essentially 1 zucchini per person. I always make more than I can eat and save the rest for lunch the next day!)
- A vegetable peeler and small knife (or a mandoline slicer if you're fancy...which I'm not.)
-A colander
-Salt (preferably Kosher or Sea Salt, but use what you have!)
 -about a tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil

 A really extensive and complicated ingredient list, no? Here's what you get to do with that lengthy list:

1. Wash your zucchini well, unless you want to ingest the germs of the hundreds of peoples' grubby hands who have been pawing at your vegetables where you shop and any other yuckiness that could possibly be living on your dinner.

 2. Cut the ends of the zucchini off, making a flat surface for you to stand the zucchini up while you....

 3. Use your vegetable peeler to peel thin strips of zucchini lengthwise. The idea here is that after shaving your zucchini, you will have very thin, pasta-like pieces. When you start feeling that any continued slicing will result in a hospital trip, feel free to bring in the use of your knife to finish the job. You can also feel free to use your knife to slice the zucchini noodles into smaller, thinner, more spaghetti-like noodles, but ain't nobody got time fo dat around here.

 4.This step is absolutely crucial! Place your noodles in the colander, give a good sprinkle of salt, and toss them around a bit, then leave them in the colander for 20-30 minutes. You really want to make sure you use enough salt for all of the noodles to get a light coating, because the salt will draw some of the water out of the zucchini and prevent you from having a soggy, watery mess on your plate and a disappointed feeling in your heart. We don't want that.

 5. Heat your EVOO in a pan on medium high heat. Make sure your pan is actually warm before dumping your noodles in, and then just give them a quick 3-5 minute sautee. You want to cook them just long enough so that they are soft.

 6. Serve with whatever pasta sauce you're feeling that day- marinara, alfredo, bolognese, any of them are appropriate! Gobble it up and refuse to feel bad about having seconds if you're so inclined- after all, though it is strikingly like a pasta noodle, remind yourself it is a vegetable, and your mother always told you to eat your vegetables. When you're done, call your mother to tell her you cleared your plate full of veggies. Then rejoice about the fact that you ate a very healthy dinner, and that your mama is so proud of you, she promised you a bigger check than your brother for Christmas!

 I decided to pair my zucchini noodles with a pretty simple, veggie-laden marinara sauce that I had on hand. (I like to make big batches of this sauce and then portion them out into freezer bags for quick and painless weeknight meal assembly. I love to cook, but between my over-fulltime-student schedule and working 50-60 hours a week, making myself big fancy dinners with elaborate and time-consuming dishes.) After the first bite, I knew I'd made a great choice- it was absolutely delicious!