Zoodles

"What is a zoodle?" you must be asking yourself. 

Cute drawings of the zoo? Some new poodle crossbreed? 

Nope.  

Zucchini noodles.  

At least, some people are calling them that.  I am not one of those people.  

That being said, I will eat them.  They're delicious.  Well, delicious in that they're kind of flavorless, like regular pasta.  If you don't cook them, they have almost the same consistency of the perfect al dente noodles.  

Why am I so excited about these?  Well, I coughed up thirty bucks to buy a spiral slicer.  

Ya'll.  It.  Is.  The.  Greatest.  Thing.  Ever.  

Before this, the best I could do with zucchini was try to peel it and make really wide, thin noodle-y strips.  Don't get me wrong.  They were tasty.  But check this out: 

 

This is what the contraption looks like.  You chop off both ends of the zucchini (or whatever vegetable you choose) and attach one end to the spicy prongs on the right side, and press the other end to the blade on the left.  Then you just turn that handle.  It took under three minutes, and I had this:

 It's hard to see scale in the picture, but that's about four cups of "noodles."  There are three different blades you can use too.  The first one I tried gave me the wider, curly noodles in the bottom left corner of the picture.  The second one gave me the rest of the pile.  (I still need to try the third one.)

 This was all that was leftover - hardly any waste.

And aside from running a sponge over the rest, this is the only part you really need to clean.  Note: clean this immediately.  It's really easy while still fresh.  Trying to clean thin dried zucchini peels out of the nooks and crannies of tiny blades is not nearly as simple as you might expect.

I'm obsessed with this thing. 

I was so excited about my healthy dinner and the fact that it was under 90 degrees yesterday with no humidity or rain that Murph and I brought our dinner to the patio to enjoy our meals al fresco.  

Some other dogs in the neighborhood started barking after that, and Murph got a little anxious, so he curled up in my lap.  I used this opportunity to grab a few closeups of him.  

 

(mid yawn)

 He's also gotten a little more used to his leash.  I still am not supposed to take him out around other dogs for a few more weeks until he's had all his shots, but we've now taken five full laps around the back yard on the leash without too much freaking out.

 He does love to play.  Libby came down last week to visit and surprised him with a few toys.  The squeaky one is by far his favorite.  As I whined about his lack of immediate housetraining, she explained that that's what she loves most about other people's pets - giving them back.  "If the puppy were to go to college, I would be the aunt that buys him a big dorm fridge." She then questioned whether or not he's Ivy League material. 

I think sleeping is still his favorite activity, though.  I took this picture of him approximately thirty-two seconds ago. 

I truly hope that this nap thing isn't a phase he grows out of.  

Tomorrow I'm going to check out a place where I might start taking Murphy for training.  If it works out, I'm sure there will be lots of anecdotes to share.  Have a great weekend!

Love, 

Murphy & Me