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.