Zucchini Spaghetti and Lasagna Noodles

This year I purposely planted a lot of zucchini because of my Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle.  Last year just before I started, people from church brought some HUGE zucchinis to church and I took a few.  They were the hardest things I ever tried cutting through! But, I made them into zucchini lasagna noodles after I started on this new way of eating. I froze the noodles in Ziploc bags.  When I made lasagna, I thawed out a bag of noodles, squeezed the liquid out of the bag and used them as I would regular lasagna noodles.  I would make myself a 8x8 lasagna (that is a few meals for me) and my family a big regular one, but I found that my kids like the zucchini one better, so now I make sure there is enough for them.

You can see in the picture above, first I cut a big chunk of zucchini to work with.  Both ends are cut so that it will not roll around when cutting it with a sharp knife.  I then cut off all the skin. (I still have to cut off a bit more on the zucchini in the picture.)

 

 

I then cut the zucchini into slices on all sides until only the seeds are left.  Then I cram the slices into medium Ziploc bags. I find one of these bags will make a 8x8 lasagna.  This big zucchini made 3 bags!  Then I throw them into the freezer,  The reason I like to freeze these noodles, other than for convenience, is when they thaw out, I squeeze the liquid out and that helps keep the lasagna less watery.  I found when I made lasagna with fresh zucchini, it was very watery.

 

Another thing I tried the other night was making spaghetti noodles with a medium sized zucchini.  I made Shrimp Scampi with it. It was SO delicious! Just tonnes of butter, garlic and a few shrimp, tossed with the zucchini noodles. Only I cooked this a bit too long and the noodles gave off too much liquid and watered down the butter. Next time I will salt and drain them first or maybe cook them a little first and drain off the liquid.

 

 

I love this Pampered Chef tool I got at a garage sale. I thought it would take a long time to make the noodles, but it seriously only took me a few minutes to do up a smaller and medium sized zucchini.  It was funny how I got the tool at the garage sale.  I didn't see anything I needed, then they asked what I was looking for.  I told them I wanted something that would make vegetables into spaghetti noodles.  They said, "We have something like that in our kitchen drawer." And they decided they didn't need it anymore, so they sold it to me! 

 

So now all my big zucchinis are going to end up in the freezer as lasagna noodles and I will enjoy a bunch more as spaghetti noodles.  There are a few more things I'd like to share on the subject, but that will have to wait for another post:)

 

 

This post is linked up to;  Hope in Every Season  Thrifty Thursday The Farm Blog Hop