I had thought that today’s
post would be the follow-up to Thursday’s post when I was working on recycling
a Lundberg Rice bag into a bag to carry small knitting projects. Alas, my friend the sewing machine had other
ideas. It had a nervous breakdown of
sorts and fell apart…literally. The
thingy that houses the needle and thread guide just fell off in the middle of
my sewing. Perhaps it had something to
do with the material that the bag is made of.
Perhaps it is because the machine is over ten years old and has done a
lot of work for me. Perhaps it was
because it was Memorial Day Weekend and it wanted some time off. Bottom line is that, once again, Charming came
through and saved the day. Apparently,
there is an invisible screw on the side of the housing that has to be tightened
with an “Allen” wrench. (Good husbands
are hard to find, so if you’ve got one you really need to find time to show
your appreciation…they’re priceless in so many ways.) I’m hoping to be able to complete the bag and
have pictures for you on Thursday.
Today’s post is a product
review. I get so tired of commercials
for those “As Seen On TV” products, but if you watch any TV at all it's hard to escape them. However,
over the past few weeks I saw the commercial hawking “The Veggetti”. Hands are shown using an hourglass shaped
utensil to grate zucchini into long strips that are supposed to be a substitute
for spaghetti. Yea, right. BUT, I kept seeing the commercial and I could
hear the darned thing calling my name.
So, on our most recent trip to Walmart, I saw the thing and made the
purchase. I had bought some zucchini at
the grocery store a couple of days before so I felt that it was meant to
be.
Last night, I gathered the
zucchini, the Veggetti, a jar of my home-canned spaghetti sauce (with meat in
it), and a tablespoon of butter. I
shredded the zucchini with the Veggetti and sautéed it in the butter. Then I put it on our plates and added the
sauce. That’s it! During supper, I anxiously watched Charming for his
reaction. I wasn’t willing to accept his
usual comment of, “Awesome” since this was going to be a product review for my blog and I
wanted his honest opinion. So when I
told him I needed his official comment for my blog he said: “The zucchini was an appropriate substitution
for spaghetti.” For his technical mind,
that was high praise. I thought the "spaghetti" was
good as well. Charming said he would
have liked to have had seconds, but I only cooked enough for one serving each
just in case it was a flop. (But I did
make him an apple pie so he wouldn’t feel like he got the shaft on seconds.)
The Veggetti comes with a
small booklet that includes recipes for squash, potatoes, carrots and cucumbers. I suppose you could get creative and use
other vegetables such as parsnips, radishes, beets or other hard vegetables
that lend themselves to being shredded (as long as they are rounded in shape
and fit into the Veggetti's opening). I will put
on my thinking cap and come up with some additional recipes to post under my
Gluten-Free Recipes Tab.
I give this item my
resounding approval. It does what it
says it will do and the zucchini “spaghetti” was good. The Veggetti costs a little less than $15 at
Walmart. Clean up would probably be a
snap if you have a dishwasher. If, like
me, you don’t have a dishwasher, simply keep a toothbrush in your dish drainer
for quick clean up of the Veggetti. Be
careful of the blades as they are very sharp.
Also, I would only use the “thick” end of the utensil to shave the
vegetable. I tried both ends and the “thin”
vegetable shavings seemed to want to clump together as I stirred them in the sauté
pan.
Oh…I almost forgot the most
important part! I have recipe software
where I keep all of my favorite recipes.
This software also provides nutritional information on whatever recipe I’m
using. So, on a lark, I quickly typed up
two recipes with the same ingredients, except one used zucchini and the other
used regular spaghetti (same amounts). TaDa! Each
serving of the spaghetti recipe contained 1,045 calories. The Veggetti spaghetti recipe contained 437
calories! Makes you want to run outside
and plant zucchini all over your yard, doesn’t it?
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| The Veggetti gives you a choice of thick or thin "noodles" and comes with a small recipe booklet. |
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| Not a great picture due to evening shadows, but you can see how easily the "noodles" are made simply by twisting the vegetable into the Veggetti. |
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| A quick (few minutes) in the saute pan... |
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| Cover with your favorite pasta sauce (in this case, it's my home made canned spaghetti sauce with meat) and you've got a quick, healthy meal in minutes! |
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