Spicy Sausage with Zoodles

As the days get longer and the nights get shorter, I have noticed over the past few weeks how much easier it is to get up in the morning to workout and to come home in the evening and take time to cook a good meal. Daylight gives me so much more energy! There has been a remarkable amount of sun here over the past few weeks, with some days feeling like spring already. Just yesterday there was a bear sighting near our house, which definitely signals that other creatures are noticing the warmer temperatures as well!

However, despite feeling more energy with the increased daylight, I still like to have ingredients on hand for a quick meal to throw together. Lately I’ve really been enjoying spicy Italian or chorizo sausages with veggies. Sometimes I roast or steam a variety of veggies, but another favorite is making veggie noodles. Zucchini noodles, often called zoodles, are definitely the easiest and fastest. What I like most about them is I can throw them in the pan with the juices from the sausage and after 2-3 minutes they soak up the flavors and are warm enough to serve. It can’t get much easier than that! I also like cucumber, carrot or beet noodles, but I find they are better served cold.

I have two tools I can use to make the noodles, a spiralizer and a julienne peeler. I find the spiralizer works best with vegetables that have a diameter greater than 1-2 inches, typically beets and cucumbers. If the diameter is too small, it’s hard to make decent noodles, which is why I like the julienne peeler for smaller zucchinis and carrots. It’s amazing how much better vegetables taste when they are noodley! It also makes it easier to feed my cravings for spaghetti sauce or pesto, when I know I have healthy alternatives to pasta and grains.

So if you just want to try making vegetables noodles, but don’t want to pay $30-40 on a spiralizer, I would suggest looking for a julienne peeler which you can find pretty much anywhere for around $10. I promise you’ll be surprised how easy it is to make noodles, plus it’s great for cutting up vegetables for salads as well. Mine definitely gets used every week!

Ingredients:

• one package of spicy sausages
• 2-3 zucchinis, made into noodles
• half a red onion, cut into half moons
• dash of olive oil
• dash of red pepper flakes

Instructions:

1. Heat up the olive oil in a pan on medium heat and then add the sausages.
2. As the sausages cook, cut up your zucchinis into noodles and dice the onion.
3. Add the onion after the sausage has cooked for 5 minutes and wait until it softens up, around 5 minutes.
4. Add the zoodles and red pepper flakes and saute for 2-3 more minutes until the zoodles are warm.
5. Serve immediately before zoodles get cold.