Fresh Lemon Garlic Zucchini Noodles

"Be grateful, eat more vegetables and love others."
~Louise Hay

Eating more vegetables is one of the keys to good health!

I realize this is not breaking news.

I'm sure you are well aware of the amazing health benefits of eating more veggies...disease prevention, healthy immune system, happy digestive system, this list goes on. The issue is actually eating enough of them every day.

Some easy ways to get more are:

•  drink a green smoothie in the morning with spinach or kale or whatever greens you like to put in
• have a salad at lunch, load up your sandwich or wrap with tons of veg, use lettuce as a wrap, have veggie soup, snack on cut carrots, bell peppers and cucumbers with hummus
• sauté greens with dinner, have a salad with dinner (or as dinner) or make a veggie stir fry or bowl (a great way to use up veg from your fridge) 
• disguise the veggies as something else - use zucchini for noodles, cauliflower for mashed potatoes or baked sweet potato slices as chips

Today's recipe uses zucchini as noodles or as they are affectionately called, "zoodles". The texture and taste works prefect with whatever you usually like to put on your pasta - tomato sauce, olive oil and herbs, or even a plant based creamy sauce like the one in this recipe. They are super easy to make. If you have a spiralizer you can use it to make skinny, spaghetti like noodles or a mandolin or peeler for thin, wider noodles. All you do after that is sauté them a bit to warm them up. Give them a try - your tastebuds and your waistline will thank you!

Fresh Lemon Garlic Zucchini Noodles

Ingredients
serves 2
2 medium zucchini
1/4 cup gluten free breadcrumbs
6 brazil nuts, chopped
3 Tbsp olive oil divided
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
juice form 1/2 a lemon with grated zest
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped fresh ground sea salt and pepper

Instructions
Wash the zucchini and trim off the ends. If you have a spiralizer use that to make the zucchini spiral "noodles" (like spaghetti). If you don't, you can use a mandolin or a peeler to make wider, thin "noodles". Set the noodles aside.

In a large fry pan, sauté the bread crumbs and brazil nuts in 1 Tbsp of olive oil over medium heat until they are lightly browned - about 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside in a bowl.

Using the same pan, sauté the garlic in 2 Tbsp of olive oil over low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice, lemon zest, nutritional yeast.

Add the zucchini noodles to the pan with the cooked garlic and lemon juice. Add in the toasted bread crumbs and brazil nuts from the second step and heat it all on medium heat for about 5 minutes, until the zucchini noodles are warmed through. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley.

Enjoy.