"Fake" Spaghetti!

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How many of you are tired of having plain salads every day for lunch in order to eat “HEALTHY”?! I know I am. I have had my fare share of having salads in all these years. I tried all kinds of salads – chopped, julienned, with meat, without meat, just leaves, just veggies..I got fed up up to my neck. I love pasta. Unfortunately, we can’t have pasta every day. I don’t like to bring Indian food at work as yes, you’ve guessed it right, it stinks up the whole kitchen upon heating up! You might say, eat whole grain pasta. Well, to me, that’s just not pasta! I love my white flour pasta. And then this light bulb went off! Why not make fake pasta out of veggies, and imitate that I am having pasta while I am still having veggies and not feeling bored? I found nice zucchinis on sale over the weekend and I immediately thought of the salad.

I love using my julienne veggie peeler to death. Don’t know how I lived without it all these years?! Ha, funny. Surely it is a very useful tool to have. I julienned some zucchinis to mimic spaghetti. Then I plain roasted cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Mostly because they were the only veggies I had on hand after my weekend grocery haul. I sauteed some garlic chips in hot EVOO along with red pepper flakes, tossed zucchini strings for a minute or so, added all the roasted veggies and a touch of salt, balsamic vinegar and voila..I am on my way to having a marvellous, greatly nutritious, not-at-all-boring salad. I added grilled shrimps for protein. Next time, I will julienne different colored bell peppers and try chicken! Clearly, the sky is the limit when we make salads like this. And the brownie point for my salad is that it doesn’t require additional dressing.