The clean eating marathon continues! Here’s today’s meal:

Zucchini noodles with grape tomatoes and pesto sauce. The salad is a bit more adventurous. It’s shaved fresh asparagus with lemon and olive oil and shaved pecorino. It’s supposed to have toasted pine nuts, too, but I thought that with the pesto it would be too much pine nuts. Instead, I just put in some crushed garlic. The beverage is one of those drinking vinegars that I never tried before. The idea here is to try new things.

19 responses to “Zucchini Pesto and Asparagus Salad”

  1. David Bellamy Avatar

    Pine nuts taste like soap, at least to me.

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    1. Z Avatar

      Not good ones / ones kept correctly.

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  2. Dreidel Avatar
    Dreidel

    You actually use a separate salad fork and dinner fork for your meals at home? Impressive!
    (I only have four forks in my entire house.)

    The meal looks/sounds delicious, but the portions seem awfully small. Or do you have turkey legs off-screen like with your previous “clean eating” meal?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      I had an apple and some sunflower seeds for dessert. I’m very virtuous. 🙂

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  3. Z Avatar

    How do you make those noodles — I want a Cuisinart with all the blades but am afraid I only need a mandoline.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      I have a spiralizer. It’s a cheap manual thing with three different blades. Works great and doesn’t need a socket, which is always great.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Z Avatar

        Does the spiralizer also make pesto? I make it in the blender but have a theory that a food processor, with a broader bowl, would work better.

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        1. Z Avatar

          Also, I think the spiralizer is a modern version of this, https://www.thespruce.com/antique-meat-grinders-flea-market-bargains-1908304 … which I have from my grandmother. I should test it, see if it will make these zucchini noodles!!!!

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          1. Stille (@aperfectbalance) Avatar

            It will make zucchini mush. Zucchini pasta is thin stripes of intact zucchini; to get spagghetti-like ones like in Clarissa’s pic you need a mandoline, but zucchini tagliatelle can be easily achieved with a potato peeler

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Z Avatar

              That’s what I was afraid of. So I need a potato peeler and a mandoline, and not a spiralizer? Or all three, and forget the electric food processor?

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              1. Clarissa Avatar

                It depends on the goal. I wanted the spiralizer because I was spending a fortune on store-spiralized vegetables and they are not very hygienic. Now I can get vegetables at the farmers market and spiralize whenever I want. But not everybody is into these spiralized vegetables as much as I am.

                Liked by 1 person

              2. Z Avatar

                I am heavily. I want spiralized carrot salad and spiralized vegetables to sauté. I also want cabbage sliced for coleslaw, and vegetables diced and chopped for ratatouille. If it were not so tedious to do all the chopping, I would have coleslaw, ratatouille, carrot salad and vegetable pasta spirals every day, as well as thinly sliced cucumber salad, both in vinegar and in yogurt. So it is mandoline and/or spiralizer and/or Cuisinart. The Cuisinart is the most comprehensive but it is a serious investment and I have been procrastinating buying it for decades now. The spiralizer is easier to face buying.

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              3. Clarissa Avatar

                For me it’s the cleaning and the assemblage. I know I won’t use it if I have to spend time on putting it together and taking it apart all the time. Plus, there’s the issue of the counter space.

                Liked by 1 person

              4. Z Avatar

                So food processors have major cleaning and assemblage issues … hmmm … to take into consideration, yes.

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        2. Clarissa Avatar

          The pesto was store bought. The spiralizer only spiralizes. It’s a very cheap, primitive thing but that’s it’s charm. It’s not a hard thing to use or clean.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Z Avatar

            I think it will do the things I want the Cuisinart for.

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  4. Stille (@aperfectbalance) Avatar

    I’ve never even heard of drinking vinegar – I suppose it’s diluted and sweetened? Now that I think about it, being sweet and not too sour, proper balsamic vinegar should be easily turnable in some sort of vinegar lemonade – just add cold sparkling water!

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      It’s a new dietary craze. Vinegar is supposed to help weight loss and lower blood sugar.

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      1. Z Avatar

        I thought it was just certain vinegars?

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