Zucchini and Sausage Skillet

 Zucchini and Sausage Skillet

• 2½ tablespoons olive or avocado oil
• ▢4 fully cooked sausages, sliced into circles ¼ inch thick
• ▢2 medium zucchini, cubed
• ▢1 onion, cut into ¾ inch pieces (close to same size as zucchini)
• ▢1 bell pepper, any color, cut into ¾ inch pieces (close to same size as zucchini)
• ▢½ teaspoon salt
• ▢½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ▢½ teaspoon dried basil
• ▢¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢¼ teaspoon onion powder
• ▢¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ▢1 teaspoon garlic, minced

Optional: Fresh basil for garnish. I chose not to use bell peppers in my recipe. I did add Parmesan cheese before serving. 

Instructions 1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add sliced sausage. Sautè, flipping sausage frequently, for 1 to 2 minutes or until sausage slices have some browning. 

• 2. Remove from pan and set aside.
• 3. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining 1½ tablespoons of oil to skillet with the zucchini, onion, and bell pepper. 
• 4. Sprinkle with salt, oregano, basil, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. Stir. Let cook until the onion is translucent and peppers and zucchini are close to tender, about 5 to 10 minutes.
• 5. Add sausage back to the skillet along with minced garlic. Stir. Cover so everything heats through for 1 to 2 minutes. Taste. Add extra salt if desired. Garnish with chopped fresh basil (optional).
• 
  

It was delicious. 

That's it ***

 

Zoodles

The Spiralizer (12 photos) 

I found this manual one on the clearance table at Walmart for $3.50. There are countless recipes on line for using zoodles. Zoodles are zucchini noodles. Zoodles are supposedly the answer to guilt free pasta.The zoodles are used in place of pasta.

The Zoodles come out by the blade in a very thin strand. But, portions that don't shred come out of the hole you see on the back.

You place a zucchini inside the cupped area and turn it, whereupon  the blade will shred it and release your zoodles. The picked area is used to screw onto the base to press and shred the last bit of whatever vegetable you're shredding.

Fresh zucchini to make zoodles

 Here is the inside of the bowl of zoodles.  The picked top that is supposed to push the last bit of vegetable to be shredded through the spiralizer doesn't do its job.  Unless you have arms of steel and want to use a lot of elbow grease, it doesn't work. I don't have those last two things.

As you can see it only clogs the  pick and you end up with these cone shaped vegetables.  The rotini shaped piece is what comes through the hole as you're shredding. Not to worry. I will be cooking these pieces too. After all, I did have to pay for them.

Cooking  I prepared the dish as was directed in the recipe. None of the recipes I instructed cooking the zoodles the way you would regular pasta. As thin and soft as they were, I didn't need to cook them.

 I added cooked ground turkey as my meat of choice, mixed in spaghetti sauce, sauteed onions and other seasonings.  I didn't take into account that the zucchini would be rendering additional moisture along with the spaghetti sauce. That's when I decided to place the mixture in a casserole dish and bake it instead.

I made sure I put enough mozzarella cheese on it before putting it in the oven.

Here is the finished result. It tasted great but was still a little too soupy for me. I put it back in the oven about 30 more minutes so it could firm up a bit.

And if you're wondering what I did to those zucchini cones, I put some olive oil and seasonings on them, wrapped them in foil and baked them along with the casserole.

 

My Take on the Spiralizer:

• If you have arthritis or trouble gripping and turning, a manual one wouldn't be the best choice. 

• I couldn't spiralize my entire vegetable because the top which pushes it down got clogged . Lacking Herculean strength, I couldn't press it closed.

• I think the thinly shredded zoodles would be great in a salad. 

Lastly, when it comes to zoodles, it still isn't pasta. No amount of imagination could get me to think I was eating spaghetti during this experiment. It tasted more like a vegetable side dish.

That's it