Friend of Julie: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

About a dozen friends of Julie gathered for a potluck and on Friday night. Our gracious hosts grilled up Fillet Mignon for the main course. Here's the story, plus: the menu, my spaghetti with meat sauce recipe, and a group photo. Spaghetti? Yes - I made spaghetti "noodles" from zucchini.

Spaghetti squash and meatballs

A photo posted by Theresa Chamberland (@alohatac) on Feb 13, 2014 at 3:57pm PST

This was the first time I had used my spirooli (see photo of this gadget below), which a key friend gave me a few months after the Greenfield potluck. I have to pause here for a moment to say: how nice this is - I get to meet and become friends with others following Julie's program, who not only have given me incredible support and shared their stories with me, but also gave me clothes and this great gadget!

I encourage you to reach out to others who are following Julie's program. Strike up a conversation before or after seeing Julie. If you read a post that inspires you, on this blog or on the closed Facebook group, reach out to that person and see if you can get together for coffee, a meal, a walk, or connect on skype, or talk on the phone. The support is incredible. And you may surprise yourself - you too may be of great support to someone else. Either way, it's very rewarding.

Back to my story...

I brought the spirooli and zucchini with me so others could give this a try. We couldn't figure out how to remove the slicer that was in place (where the noodles come out) when I opened the box, so the noodles were thicker than I preferred. Later, I asked the two men who were at the gathering to take a look and we finally figured it out. It was one of those secret handshake things, push on the back piece while pulling up on the top. Next time I will be able to make the thinner noodles.

I used my spirooli to turn yellow squash into noodles. Photo by Theresa

The recipe is pretty simple - make your favorite meat sauce and serve over zucchini "noodles."

We sliced the skin off  the 8 medium sized zucchini. In looking at the photo (above) I realized we didn't have to remove the skin. Actually, the noodles look more interesting with the skin. We then put the zucchini through the spirooli to make the noodles and then put them in a bowl and into the microwave.

Since it was my first time making these, noodles I set the microwave to 2 minutes. After 6 minutes, each time we took them out of the microwave, we took turns tasting a noodle to see if they were done enough. You want them cooked, but not soggy. They softened to our liking after 10 minutes.

(07/16/14 update: I made these noodles on top of the stove in a small amount of water in a veggie steamer and they cook in less than 2 minutes. I highly recommend stove-top cooking them.)

Martha Stewart Veggie Steamer. Photo source: macys.com

We then invited the others to taste the spaghetti with meat sauce. A couple people were hesitant to try the noodles, because they don't like veggies or they don't like zucchini, but everyone had some noodles with lots of meat sauce, to keep the meat-to-veggie ratio in line.

Some loved these noodles, others really liked the sauce, but the noodles, not so much. Other recipe ideas were suggested, such as adding them to a stir-fry. If you google spirooli recipes, you will find a lot of recipes and videos.

At the end of the night, Linda said "I love these noodles. I have to get one of these things." I loaned her the spirooli. This way she can make the noodles for for her family a few times before committing to buying one. Plus, this gives us another reason to get together. Linda, we look forward to seeing you post the spirooli recipes you create for your family. A photo would be great too!

The Meat Sauce

I cooked 2 pounds of organic ground beef with long slices of onion (half of a small vidalia onion), and after the meat was cooked I added a jar and a half of tomato sauce (I used Capa di Roma's Roasted Garlic, which I bought at Big Y). I made the meat sauce the night before, so all I had to do was heat it up at the gathering. I usually use both jars of sauce for my meat sauce, but since I was serving the meat sauce over veggies, I cut back on the amount of tomato sauce - always watching for the meat-veggie ratio.

The Noodles

Adjust the number of zucchini (green and/or yellow) to suit your needs, try to make an amount that will eaten that day. I used 8 total.

Remove the skin from the zucchini (or you may leave it on.) Push the zucchini through a spirooli to make the noodles. Place the noodles in a dish and microwave until the zucchini the texture you like for your noodles. I cooked all 8 zucchini for 10 minutes.  If you're cooking less zucchini, cut back on the cooking time.

Serve the noodles and sauce separate, unless you are sure you've made the exact amount needed. The noodles become too soggy if left in the sauce. (I read this, I don't know this for sure.)

The Menu

So, you're wondering, what else did we eat? Plenty...

• Fillet Mignon
• Corn on the cob
• Bacon wrapped shrimp
• Shrimp cocktail
• Pepperoni
• Salad
• Barbecue kielbasa
• Rolled soppressata
• Veggie sticks and cheese
• Deviled eggs

The Group Photo

Gathering of friends of Julie 07/26/13

Clothing Exchange

In addition to meeting some for the first time, we had a clothing exchange. This was a lot of fun. In fact, I'm wearing a new blouse from this giveaway in the photo above. The grand finali was when our hostess opened her coat closet and offered a beautiful crimson red wool coat, which was a perfect fit for the recipient!

More Spirooli Recipes

• Super Easy Crock Pot Spaghetti Squash with Meatballs
• Bacon Shrimp Scampi
• Zucchini Spaghetti
• Angus Beef Meatballs
• Zucchini Pasta
• Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Other Resources

• Making ‘pasta’ or ‘noodles’ out of zucchini using a spirooli 
• How to use a spirooli