Green and Black Noodles with a “Cheese” Sauce

This was my first real foray into making a nut-based cheese sauce but I thought I’d give it a shot. Nutritional yeast is kinda weird but REALLY works, it’s crazy. Also I wanted to use up the rest of my squid ink pasta and also use zucchini noodles so I just went ahead and combined them here. You can definitely use one or the other but you gotta admit, it does look pretty cool with two colors of noodles.

{serves 2}

  • 2 cup leftover squid ink noodles (optional)
  • 2* cups zucchini noodles (zoodles, if you will) *[FOUR cups of zoodles if not using leftover squid ink pasta]
  • 1 generous dash of everything but the bagel spice (trader joe’s)
  • 8 oz crimini mushrooms sliced
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp coconut aminos
  • 1/2 cup each; cashews and almonds
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2 tbsp sauerkraut juice (literally the juice in the sauerkraut jar)
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 dash himalayan salt
  1. soak cashews and almonds in hot water for an hour
  2. in a food processor blend nuts, and following 5 ingredients until smooth, add water if too dry
  3. in a big skillet or wok heat the olive oil and add the everything bagel seasoning over medium heat, add mushrooms, cook for about 3 minutes with lid on
  4. add zucchini noodles and coconut aminos and cook for an additional 5 minutes, you can do this in batches if it’s too much for your pan, stir occasionally
  5. then add other noodles (already cooked), if using
  6. spoon the sauce over the noodles and mushrooms and stir until combined
  7. garnish with basil or chili flakes or both, done!

© 2018, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

Zucchini, Jalapeno, Asiago Bread

Last week we had excessive amounts of jalapenos and I was going  to visit my grandpa (Nonno) who is jalapeno’s number one fan so I decided to spice up some zucchini bread with jalapenos and add some cheese in for good measure. He approved.

  • 4 jalapenos
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup grated zucchini
  • 1/2 cup grated asiago
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  1. pre-heat oven to 350°F and line a bread pan with parchment paper or butter or cooking spray
  2. whisk eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until smooth
  3. whisk flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and nutmeg
  4. make a well in center of dry ingredients, add egg mix and slowly combine, then fold in zucchini
  5. de-seed jalapenos and dice them, then add them into dough along with grated cheese
  6. bake for about 70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

Pickled Zucchini and Plums

It is ridiculously hot in SLO right now. Yesterday I sat at home and studied all day but somehow still ended up feeling gritty like I had been strolling the streets of NYC on a summer day, thanks to the steady layer of sweat I kept up until well after sunset..even though I was stationed under the fan, with breaks only to make trips to the little girls room and to the freezer to remove and refill glasses of water. At one point I realized the reason my laptop was moving at the pace of an elderly snail, was probably because the poor thing was hotter than the outside temperature, meaning well over 100. I put it in the fridge. Not like I was getting much done. Heat is definitely not conductive to productivity. Anyways my friend was coming over for dinner but the thought of cooking ANYTHING sounded horrendous so I made a few cold salad-y things that required minimal effort and used up some of our surplus produce.

We got zucchini in our CSA this week, much to my chagrin. I’ve never been a fan and neither is my roommate. This was a big stress on my conscience this week…knowing that I’d have to mask those stupid zucchinis, also knowing it was going to be way too hot to cook anything this weekend unless dinner prep could wait til 8:00 when it finally starts cooling off. But we’re busy girls so this  is not feasible. I decided to  pickle them because as you know if you’ve seen this Portlandia clip, pickling is the solution if you’re in a pickle.

  • 2 zucchinis
  • 1 1/2 plums
  • 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 cup water
  1.  cut zucchinis in halves and grate them long ways using a carrot grater
  2. slice plums thinly
  3. lay zucchini and plums in a small casserole kind of dish and sprinkle sugar and salt over
  4. pour vinegar and water over
  5. let marinate for an hour and stir a little, adding more vinegar if it looks like it needs more moisture

I also have made Pickled Carrots TWICE this week because pickled carrots are especially great. We also had 3 bunches of them.

And here are some pickled onions for good measure.

 

 

© 2014, domenicadreamsofcalamari. All rights reserved.

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