No pasta pasta dishes
Craving Pasta
As a Type-2 diabetic, I find there are many things I want to eat, but shouldn’t. Pasta is one of those. I absolutely love pasta, and have even written a pasta cookbook. I prefer making my own, but the carbs… At the store last Friday, I bought four medium zucchini with the idea of making low-carb “pasta.” Actually, what I wanted was to run those green cylinders along a mandoline and get nice, smooth, thin slices–sort of like home-made lasagna noodles.
I even looked up a recipe for Keto lasagna, and found one that used Fathead style cooking to make the “noodles” out of eggs, mozzarella, parmesan and seasoning. I still believe that zucchini slices are the way to go, and some day soon I’ll go that way.
Today, I was just too busy researching and writing to go to all that work. But hey! I have some interesting things in the freezer that could make up a low-carb “pasta” dish. Let’s see what happens when I just throw things together.
The things you find at the store
We have a Mennonite owned grocery surplus store just down the road in Thompson Falls. I love shopping there, partly for the low prices, but mostly because they have items I’ve never seen anywhere else. I believe they get dents and similar items that cannot be sold at retail grocers. I know they get packages with names I’ve never seen.
As an example, last week I found something in the freezer compartment. Lunds and Byerlys Mediterranean Riced Cauliflower. It came in a microwavable bag and contained cauliflower, tomato, peppers, zucchini and onion. The package said 7 grams of carb per serving, with 2 grams of dietary fiber. Sounds great so far. But I’ve never heard of Lunds and Byerlys. That’s ok. at $1.29 a bag, it’s worth a try. And I can always look the company up on line, right?
I bought two bags. One went right into the freezer. The second went into the microwave. Yeah, I saw that it was “Mediterranean,” but I was hoping for Spanish rice. You know, sopa seca? Five minutes later, I was eating my riced cauliflower. Good, but most definitely not Spanish rice. But it would be great with pasta. And idea was born.
So what did I make for supper?
There was a pound of ground beef in the refrigerator. Kevin had picked up extra crushed tomatoes. I had that Mediterranean riced cauliflower in the freezer. And also a bag (or two) of Green Giant zucchini veggie spirals. What would happen if I just threw it all in the skillet? It was great. Had I known that Kevin wasn’t going to eat any of it, I would have added more spices. Maybe some oregano, thyme. But I was trying to cook for him. Oh well. Here’s the recipe for the dish. Easy peasy. And both Tim and I liked it. Try it and tell me what you think. It was a satisfying way to have low-carb “pasta.”
Zucchini Pasta Spagetti
Equipment
- Cast iron skillet
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- dash onion powder or to taste
- 1 can crushed tomatoes
- 1 bag Mediterranean riced cauliflower
- 1 bag Green Giant zucchini veggie spirals
Instructions
- Heat cast iron skillet over medium high heat
- Add ground beef and stir to break up chunks
- As beef browns, keep stirring to break chunks and add onion powder to taste
- When meat is thoroughly browned, and broken up, add frozen mediterranean riced cauliflower
- After a minute, add zucchini veggie spirals
- Cover skillet and saute for 10 minutes
- Uncover, stir to mix all ingredients. If there is a lot of liquid, leave uncovered and continue to cook off some of the liquid
- Serve with grated parmesan cheese and enjoy
In closing
Last week I wrote up my experience making Jambalaya. The Monday before that I wrote about keto brownies, keto cinnamon rolls, sourdough bread and Instant Pot™ chicken and dumplings. Are you seeing a pattern here? I don’t know what food I’ll write about next Monday. But don’t forget to tune in.
TTFN
