Zuchini Spaghetti

Spaghetti sauce on grated zucchini in 8" pasta bowl

Here's a seasonal favorite, wonderful when the garden works well, or if your  neighbor's garden works well, or even if you have a distant cousin who's garden is productive.

Some people may even pay you to take away their excess zucchini :)

It's super easy and inexpensive.

The zucchini is unpeeled and raw, just grated.

The sauce is Prego. Nothing special. Tastes fabulous as far as I'm concerned.

The white stuff on top is grated parmesan cheese. Any commercial brand will do. I buy mine in bulk, straight from the bulk bins at Winco.

Like I said, super cheap, super easy, super good.

Keep in mind the above picture was taken for illustration purposes, before I smothered it in more spaghetti sauce and added more parmesan.

Now some would fault this for 1. A tomato sauce that has sugar and salt in it, 2. Parmesan cheese that has animal products and salt, and 3. Not one darn thing pictured here is certified organic. I think but I'm not sure my source gardener for the zucchini doesn't use pesticides, and zucchini in general doesn't need any.

That's why there's often such an explosive abundance. And the zucchini pictured here was one of those extra-large ones that most people don't prefer, some even throw away, about 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter.

Regardless, it all grates, tastes and works just great.

But here's a qualifier. I don't believe I'd get the same great results by using "spaghetti squash." As a winter squash it's far higher in carbohydrates, and therefore calories. Nothing wrong with it nutritionally, it's just the tradeoff between quantity and calories. You can have one or the other, But if you have to take or keep the pounds off, a little bit is great, a lot is not.

Here's the saving grace. I ate three huge bowls full two nights in a row, and weighed in at less than before.

Now that's the kind of (non)diet I can live with.