Zucchini Pasta w/ Spinach Cheese Sauce (Vegan)

As you may have read in our last post, Jenn and I have totally revamped our diet. After figuring out we don't do so well on sugar, we've been making a conscious effort to cut way back on it as well as reintroducing some animal products. So far so good! And we just wanted to honestly thank all of our readers, um you guys are seriously awesome and so supportive. We so appreciated all of your warm and fuzzy comments on our last post, gee whiz...thanks. ;)

Even though we're including animal products now in our diet. We still love our vegan meals and enjoy them on a frequent basis.

Amongst my favourite vegan meals are vegetable pastas. Pasta is the one thing that I am always in the mood for. It's always the perfect blank canvas for whatever creative, crazy concoctive sauce thing you can think up. And it's just so darn fun to eat.

This pasta dish I made is literally all vegetables, using thin spaghetti type noodles made with a julienne peeler out of zucchini. The peeler was only 7$ at a kitchenware store by the way, compared to 30$ for a spiralizer, ka-ching! And it's super quick to use and clean up too.

I was being a perfectionist like I tend to be and and peeled the zucchini first with a regular vegetable peeler before julienning so the noodles would be like white pasta noodles. Feel free to leave the skin on though because it's super healthy and stuff. :)

Noodles made from yellow and green zucchini

Why hello julienno

Save the middle parts to dip in hummus!

I've made this spinach cheese sauce numerous times in the past, it came from trying to make pesto in a magic bullet while accidentally using the cross blade; so it pureed it into a creamy sauce instead of a pesto. Don't let the green deceive you, it's all cheese. ;)

creepin' out in the sun

Spinach "Cheese" Pasta Sauce:

3 tbsp olive oil
Juice from half a lemon
1/2 cup spinach leaves, packed
3 tbsp chopped almonds
2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 clove garlic
2 tsp italian herb blend
Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in magic bullet, using a cross blade, or food processor (you may get a regular pesto consistency if you use a food processor). Blend until smooth and creamy.

"the rest" of the Pasta dish:

3 zucchinis peeled and "julienned"
Broccoli florets, handful
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1/4 red onion, sliced
Coconut oil, to cook with

Sautee the onions, red peppers and broccoli until tender. Add zucchini noodles. Cook until noodles have shrunken down in size slightly (make sure pan isn't too wet form cooking vegetables, wait until all water has evaporated, and add more oil if necessary). Add in sauce and cook for 1 minute or until cooked through. Top with nutritional yeast flakes and sesame seeds.

Makes 2 servings

A sprinkling of sesames and nutritionals for good measure ;)