Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Grub It Up: Mediterranean Chicken Pasta with Zoodles


After listening to everyone rave about zoodles (zucchini noodles) for quite some time, mom finally decided to get on board and check them out. She had a heck of a time finding a julienne peeler (yes, you can get one online super easily, but she wanted to make them immediately, so that wasn't going to do). She finally tracked one down at Williams & Sonoma, but wouldn't you know that the saleswoman gave her the WRONG peeler. The one that does exactly what every other peeler we have at the house already does. You know. Just peel. All the zoodles mom saw online looked like spaghetti noodles, but she kept getting flat, wide ribbons. Once she finally realized she'd been duped and wasn't physically incapable of replicating all the youtube videos she forced herself to watch on repeat, she declared that we were having linguine zoodles instead of spaghetti noodles and moved on.

Good thing. Because this mediterranean chicken pasta was DELISH. Nice and bright and lemony. Plus, we're all obsessed with kalamata olives. And mom reports the zoodles were super tasty and did the trick of satisfying a pasta craving. You know we weren't down with green noodles, no matter what shape they were -- we had them over regular spaghetti noodles. Daddy tried them, but also on top of regular pasta. We'll give him a pass, he was carb loading for his Tough Mudder this past weekend.

And before we get down to zoodle business, here's our menu and links from the rest of last week:

Tuesday -- Veggie Fried Rice -- no real recipe here. mom just stirfried whatever veggies we had, added some fish sauce and coconut aminos to taste and threw in cauliflower rice. And she gave us some turkey with ours, too. Not award winning, but used up a lot of veg we had.

Wednesday -- Mediterranean Chicken Pasta with Zoodles.

Thursday -- Bacon Apple Turkey Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries (these a real fam favorite) -- YUM. Mom couldn't find cranberries, so she skipped the topping and put 2 tablespoons of maple syrup into the burger mix itself. Awesome move, mom.

Friday -- Roast Beef Stuffed Peppers and Spaghetti Squash with Bacon and Garlic -- the stuffed peppers were delicious (mom used Trader Joe's sweet and spicy mustard, which isn't really Paleo), the squash was not. Mom is going to blame most of the squash issues on underdoneness, but there wasn't a whole lot of flavor going on there. Everyone raves about spaghetti squash, so she's on the lookout for a new recipe to try.

Saturday -- Carb loading dinner out! Daddy's race was on Sunday, so we went out to dinner Saturday night. We assisted in carb loading while mom stuck with steak and veggies.

Sunday -- Leftovers! Burgers, Stuffed Peppers, Cauliflower Rice and some steamed veggies.

Monday -- Honey Orange Chicken over Cauliflower Rice -- heck yea faux Chinese food. This was super good and a quick fix for mom. Win, win.

Mediterranean Chicken Pasta with Zoodles 

Mediterranean Chicken
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup sundried tomatoes in oil
- 1 cup reduced sodium chicken stock
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons almond meal
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
- salt and pepper
- 3 teaspoons olive oil, divded use
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 1 package (9 ounces) frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
- 2 tablespoons capers
- 2 tablespoons chopped, fresh basil

Directions:
To make the sauce, stir the chicken stock, lemon juice, zest and flour together in a bowl. Set aside.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large saute pan or skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook without moving it until it is browned on one side, about 3 minutes. Turn the chicken over and cook on the other side until browned. Remove chicken and set aside in a bowl. 

Turn the heat down to medium and add the remaining teaspoon oil. Add the garlic and chili flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir the sauce mixture and pour it into the pan. Stir to pick up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. 

Slice sundried tomatoes and add them to the pan along with the artichokes, capers and chicken. Simmer for a few minutes to allow the ingredients to heat up. 

Add zoodles (see below) and basil. Toss to combine all ingredients well and serve immediately.

Linguine Style Zoodles
Ingredients: 
- 3 zucchini
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper

Directions:
Using a peeler (YES, a regular peeler), peel long strands of zucchini into flat noodles. Place zoodles into a strainer and sprinkle with salt to help drain some of the liquid out. Heat olive oil in pan and warm up zoodles for a few minutes. Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper to taste.

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