Lightened Up Italian

Katie spent all day yesterday doing yard work while I was at the office. I don't know how she did it. It was DIS-GUST-ING outside. For all of her hard work, I promised her a good, homemade dinner. And I think I delivered with this lightened up Italian fare!

Using my mandolin slicer, I morphed the zucchini (from our garden!) into "noodles." I placed them in a strainer and sprinkled them with a bit of salt to help draw out extra moisture.

Meanwhile, I diced and seeded a couple of tomatoes and cooked these faux chicken strips. I don't usually eat fake meat, but it's nice to have on hand for a quick meal. And I think it really helped bulk up what was essentially a salad for dinner. (Plus, they tasted really good!)

I tossed the zucchini pasta and tomatoes with white bean and basil hummus from Trader Joe's. This stuff has so much flavor and works wonderfully as a sauce!

When the chick'n strips were finished cooking, I coated them in my favorite marinara.

To assemble, I put a scoop of zucchini on a bed of spinach, which I then topped with a few saucy chick'n strips.

It was really good! We both cleaned our plates. Italian food is so often heavy and cheesy, this was a great way to lighten it up!