Cooking for One: Zucchini Pasta and Meatballs

Cool tool and a boring zucchini

I love to cook and I'm trying to eat healthier. I'm not fond of leftovers and if I do eat leftovers I only want it once.....not for the next 3 days. I bought a new cooking tool at Bed Bath and Beyond. It's one of those "As Seen on TV" products. It's a really cool vegetable peeler. I used it to make pasta out of a zucchini.

Ingredients for ONE person:

1 small zucchini

4 ounces of ground beef (I section 16 oz packages into four baggies and freeze until I need it)

1/2 an egg (yes you can do it or your meatballs will be runny and fall apart)

1/4 c breadcrumbs

Spices you like (My faves: basil, thyme, oregano, pepper)

Roasted tomatoes or spaghetti sauce
Your favorite wine
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1. Rinse the zucchini and put it in the new cool tool or use a vegetable peeler or knife to make your pasta noodles. I also put the noodles on paper towels to sop up the water.
2. Mix the ground beef, egg, breadcrumbs and spices and roll into balls. I made 4.
3. Pop meatballs into the oven on a baking pan. Total cooking time is about 20 minutes. I turn them once half way through so they are evenly browned on the outside.
4. While meatballs are cooking, have a glass of wine and contemplate what you are grateful for - for exactly 15 minutes and then sautee your noodles in olive oil and garlic for about 4-5 minutes depending on how you like your noodles. I like mine more al dente so I only cook 4 minutes.
5. Put the noodles on a plate. Use same pan (less cleaning) and add tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce. Add the cooked meatballs and heat up the sauce.
6. When the sauce is warm, serve over pasta noodles. If noodles aren't warm, you can pop them in microwave briefly. Eat.

I would love to have some homemade bread with this, but I am a horrible baker and I don't really need the bread. I attempted to make a coconut flour bread recently. My daughter laughed. It was a big pile of flat, stinky, goo. She told me she has no idea why I keep trying to bake. 

The Colosseum Tour - Walks of Italy

We decided to upgrade from a Colosseum Tour to the Underground Tour. It was worth it. 

Walks of Italy Colosseum Underground Tour

We got to go down to the VIP section. This tour was a lot of walking. It took approximately 4 hours or more. 

Standing around outside waiting for the tour.

I don't remember what this was. Oops.

Nick made fun of me for having two sets of glasses, but they were both prescription and we would go from inside to outside a lot, so both were nice to have.

Pedestal system for lowering elephants, tigers, and other large animals in their crates.

This is where the Gladiators entered for most likely their last few minutes alive.

We saw Palantine Hill, the Roman Forum, the Temple and gardens of the Vestal Virgins and we got to go down inside of the Colsseum to see where the gladiators and large animals entered the arena. This tour is not for the weak. 

We walked for hours and up and down the steps of the Colosseum. It is fairly fast paced. Angela, our guide was wonderful. An archealogist and very knowledgeable.

Nick and I took hundreds of pictures, but I will not post them all here. He was always getting behind the tour and I was getting worried and made it a point to tell him. He said not to worry. He just looked for the bright pink hat and could easily catch back up.