avo mac n'cheese zoodles
An interlude to the deluge of photos from India. To be honest, I'm swamped by the amount I took so I'm just going to put them to the side for now. So onto this post...
Healthy eating and I have one of those on again, off again relationships. It's very unhealthy. I'm sorry but it's too hard to say no to perfectly frosted cupcakes, greasy burgers, or carb laden pastas. But it seems the last one is somewhat avoidable. I was on some food blog a few weeks ago and came across zoodles. Aka zucchini noodles. I figured I'd give it a try because a) as much as I love pasta, it's the sauce that's the good stuff b) we have a ridiculous amount of zucchinis growing in our garden (like at least 7-8 a week.)
I've made this stovetop avocado mac n' cheese recipe a few times, but adjusted it this time around to fit my tastes, as well as to make it a little healthier.
Serves 3-4
2 zucchinis (medium sized)
1 large avocado
1 tablespoon lime juice
3-4 cloves crushed garlic (cause I'm a garlic lover. If you're not, scale back to 1-2)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper (optional)
sea salt + pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (+ some) tablespoons flour
1/4 cup (+ some) milk
3/4 cup shredded pepperjack cheese
2) To prepare the zucchini, use a julienne peeler, or in my case a spiral slicer to get thin and long noodles. I preferred to eat them raw, but you can heat them up on a pan with a little olive oil and salt if you desire.
3) On a saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil and flour to make a white, pasty mixture. As you're using olive oil and not butter, be wary of not letting the flour burn. If it isn't becoming pasty, add more flour as needed.
4) Whisk in milk to the pan. Continue mixing until smooth. If the paste is too mushy, add in milk as needed.
5) CHEESE! Add it. Blend it till it's nice n' creamy.
6) Pour the avocado sauce onto the zoodles. Mix. Then add the cheese sauce onto the zoodles. Mix.
7) Completely optional step. Usually I would top off my pastas with some freshly shredded cheese. But to take the healthier route I decided to top it with some chopped green peppers (also grown in our garden.) They added a wonderful crunch!
Healthy eating and I have one of those on again, off again relationships. It's very unhealthy. I'm sorry but it's too hard to say no to perfectly frosted cupcakes, greasy burgers, or carb laden pastas. But it seems the last one is somewhat avoidable. I was on some food blog a few weeks ago and came across zoodles. Aka zucchini noodles. I figured I'd give it a try because a) as much as I love pasta, it's the sauce that's the good stuff b) we have a ridiculous amount of zucchinis growing in our garden (like at least 7-8 a week.)
I've made this stovetop avocado mac n' cheese recipe a few times, but adjusted it this time around to fit my tastes, as well as to make it a little healthier.
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
2 zucchinis (medium sized)1 large avocado
1 tablespoon lime juice
3-4 cloves crushed garlic (cause I'm a garlic lover. If you're not, scale back to 1-2)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper (optional)
sea salt + pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (+ some) tablespoons flour
1/4 cup (+ some) milk
3/4 cup shredded pepperjack cheese
Directions
1) Blend the peeled and pitted avocado in a food processor along with the cilantro, crushed garlic, lime juice, salt, and pepper. If you want an extra kick of spice you can add in some crushed red pepper (1 teaspoon at a time to make sure it isn't too hot.)2) To prepare the zucchini, use a julienne peeler, or in my case a spiral slicer to get thin and long noodles. I preferred to eat them raw, but you can heat them up on a pan with a little olive oil and salt if you desire.
3) On a saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil and flour to make a white, pasty mixture. As you're using olive oil and not butter, be wary of not letting the flour burn. If it isn't becoming pasty, add more flour as needed.
4) Whisk in milk to the pan. Continue mixing until smooth. If the paste is too mushy, add in milk as needed.
5) CHEESE! Add it. Blend it till it's nice n' creamy.
6) Pour the avocado sauce onto the zoodles. Mix. Then add the cheese sauce onto the zoodles. Mix.
7) Completely optional step. Usually I would top off my pastas with some freshly shredded cheese. But to take the healthier route I decided to top it with some chopped green peppers (also grown in our garden.) They added a wonderful crunch!