I saw a meme once that said something along the lines of, every girl’s dream is not to find the perfect man, it’s to eat whatever she wants without getting fat.
So. Much. Truth. Unfortunately, that requires going to the gym more than once a month and not eating all the things I love — bread, pasta, cheese, salt and vinegar chips, crispy chicken, etc. I know I’m not the only one struggling here! Although I do love pasta, there have been some pretty solid vegetable substitutes. I won’t lie to you and tell you zoodles or spaghetti squash taste anything like actual spaghetti. But it’ll do the job when you’re really trying to cut the carbs. Carbbsss … I’m still thinking about my Rosemary Green and Black Olive Bread.
But we’ll save that for a cheat day. Until then, I’ll be upping the spaghetti squash intake and trying my hardest to replace carbs with veggies.
I still haven’t found a suitable bread replacement. Will share once I get my hands on something delicious.
Ingredients
- 4 Zucchinis
- 1 lb Ground Beef
- 1 Red Onion, chopped
- 1 packed cup Parsley, chopped finely
- 1 tablespoon Seven Spice
- Salt to taste
- For the Sauce:
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced finely
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce (or cooked/pureed tomatoes)
- 2 tsp Seven Spice
- ¼ teaspoon red chili flakes
- 1 tbs White Vinegar
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Prepare your zoodles by cutting the ends off each zucchini.
- Using a zoodler (or spiralizer), spiralizer your zucchini and set aside.
- Once the tomato sauce is simmering, add zoodles to a deep skillet and sauté over medium-high heat until softened.
- Remove from heat
- Pour the tomato sauce over the zoodles and add meatballs
- Preheat oven to 400 F
- Place the ground beef into a large bowl
- In the bowl of a food processor, process red onion, parsley and spices until minced
- Add the minced onion and parsley to the ground beef and mix well
- Using your hands, form golf ball sized balls and set aside (you can use a melon baller or ice cream scoop for more even balls)
- Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat
- Place the meatballs into the skillet and fry until browned all over
- Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray
- Place the meatballs on the pan in a single layer
- Bake uncovered for 20 minutes
- Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat
- Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the garlic and sauté 2 minutes
- Add the tomato sauce, Seven Spice, salt and pepper to taste, chili flakes and vinegar.
- Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat to low
- Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened
