Speaker 1: 2:09

Recently, we keep getting the question what am I supposed to do with all this zucchini? Now, even if you don't have your very own garden or it's not zucchini time when you're listening to this podcast episode, zucchini is available pretty much year round and it's a great vegetable to get more of into your dishes. So today we're giving you five easy ways to use your zucchini and enjoy it. Hey sister, welcome to the Power on Plants podcast. Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better? Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health? Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do?

Speaker 1: 2:56

Hi, we're Jared and Anita Roussel, christ followers, healthcare professionals, parents of four and big fans of great tasting food. We, too, tried exercising more, eating natural and clean foods, but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes, and we weren't finding answers the traditional route. So we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon sustainable plant-based living. The truth is, you can eat more whole plant foods and it's not hard. You just need the way that's realistic and delicious, so you never feel deprived. If you're ready to enjoy your meals, no longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life, then you're in the right place. So grab your favorite plant-based cup of happy pop in those earbuds and let's get started.

Speaker 1: 3:47

Sunshine, if you are ready to feel better by eating meals you really love, this is the episode for you. Actually, this is the podcast for you, because that's what Jared and I are all about. But in this episode today we're going to talk about what do you do with all that zucchini? Several of you have been asking us what do I do with all this zucchini? I have it coming in by droves from my garden and it's fresh and it's delicious and I don't want to waste it. What do I do with it? We all hate waste. Listen, we get it, but maybe you don't have a garden, maybe you just want to know how to get more zucchini into your life. And that's a great thing to do, because we know that every whole plant food that the father has made, they're all filled with the phytochemicals, those nutrients you can only find in whole plant foods that your body absolutely requires in order for you to function well, to prevent disease and even reverse it. And so let's talk about zucchini. You know what I know, jared, and I tend to talk a lot.

Speaker 1: 4:44

We love chatting with you and giving all these incredible ideas, but today we want to keep it so, so simple and we just want you to walk away and take one of these five tips and this week our challenge to you is to start implementing the one. Whichever one it is you choose, we don't care. Pick one new way to get more zucchini into your life and do that this week. And then we want you to come inside podcast insiders experience and tell us what that one way is. So way number one that you may choose is adding it to your oatmeal. Did you know that you can grate zucchini, put it into your oatmeal, cook it with your oatmeal? Not even hardly tell it's there, because it gets super soft and kind of just blends in with the oatmeal. It really doesn't have much flavor when you cook it in this way, but it can really add a lot of nutritional value to your oatmeal that's not normally there.

Speaker 2: 5:43

And many times we think of oatmeal as being something that's sweet, but you can make savory oatmeal.

Speaker 1: 5:48

You can. But you can also make it a little sweet. Add just a little sweetener, like some date syrup, date paste, whatever you like to put in your oats, and you can still do that with the zucchini, and it will taste good.

Speaker 2: 5:59

I think with zucchini, the flavor profile of it would allow it to be put into a sweeter oatmeal. But just for expanding your horizons and expand your thinking, oatmeal doesn't always have to be just sweet. We can use it in a savory manner.

Speaker 1: 6:13

You absolutely can use it in a savory way, but the one thing I want you to consider when you make this dish. Here's your pro tip Don't add as much liquid as you normally would, because that zucchini is going to cook out a lot of liquid and you would end up in a soupy mess. This is the kind of stuff that we love sharing with you, so take these pro tips and put them into practice. It's going to make all the difference. And the second way you could use zucchini is putting it into a smoothie or a smoothie bowl. We get almost stuck in a rut sometimes in how we make our smoothies and our smoothie bowls and we have these same old things that we put all the time. And some of those same old things are great. They may be power packed with nutrients that you absolutely need and want to get into your life every single day, but what if you add something new in there? You might find a new favorite.

Speaker 2: 7:01

It's good to get variety. Now, one of those powerhouses would be something like kale, and that's not bad, but throw a little zucchini and get some of those extra nutrients from other plants that you are probably missing if you don't do this.

Speaker 1: 7:16

Zucchini is the perfect thing to add to your smoothies and smoothie bowls, because you are not even going to know it's there.

Speaker 2: 7:22

And for number three, soups and stews. I love that idea so much. These are an excellent way to utilize zucchini in ways that we probably wouldn't think of.

Speaker 1: 7:32

You know what I love about this. Let's just get practical for a second. What I love? The fact that if your children if you're thinking I have kids they won't eat zucchini. You can get zucchini into a soup and a stew, even a spaghetti sauce. Yeah, I've put it in spaghetti sauce before.

Speaker 1: 7:50

If you chop it super fine, chop it really really fine and put it in there, Just keep in mind it will cook out a lot of water. You may want to adjust the ratio of water that you put in these things, but with soup and stew it doesn't really matter. You're going to have, if it's super it soupy, so it's okay, it will work. But chop it very tiny and they're never gonna know it's in there. Now, if you love it like us, put larger chunks in there. I have one child that doesn't love it so much but he'll eat it and almost anything, because the flavor profile is so neutral. He just doesn't want to eat a bowl of plain zucchini on his own or with a little sauce or something on it. He wants it mixed in and incorporated in these dishes and this is one way that he actually enjoys eating. Zucchini is in his soups and stews.

Speaker 2: 8:36

And I think it's a good idea to expose your children to these different foods so that they can get accustomed to the flavors, the textures. I don't think I would normally advocate trying to sneak it in, but if they're just really resistant to go ahead and get some of the nutrients in them, the smoothies is an excellent way to where. They won't taste it, they won't see it, they won't have any texture issues with it, but they're still definitely going to get the nutritional impact of it.

Speaker 1: 9:01

Listen, make it fun with little ones. Call it their special shake or something. Give it some kind of special name. It doesn't have to be a smoothie or a green smoothie. Pick some other name. Make it fun for them whatever they would like. You can't go wrong doing it that way, because they will get excited about it and it's something they'll look forward to because it's their special treat. It has a cute, meaningful name to them and that's one simple way to make whole food, plant-based, enjoyable for little ones.

Speaker 1: 9:28

Number four make noodles. Now, if you're making raw noodles with zucchini, we call it zoodles. So if you ever heard of zoodles, this is what zoodles are. You may have a fancy spiralizer that cranks things out. Maybe you have a fancy one that goes on the end of your KitchenAid mixer, or maybe you have one that you just hand crank. That only cost you a couple of dollars. It doesn't matter, as long as it will make noodles from raw veggies. This is where it's at. I absolutely love this meal. This is one of my favorite ways to get raw into my life. Because I'm talking, within five minutes I can have a big bowl of raw zoodles, and I might mix in other things for color, which makes it more fun. So I might peel a carrot and put a carrot in there and I might spiralize some other things to go in it, like yellow squash or cucumber. Really, the possibilities are almost endless here and you really need to give this a try. Use our Asian peanut sauce from the Power on Plants cookbook their original.

Speaker 2: 10:34

Oh, that's a good one. It goes so well on something like zoodles.

Speaker 1: 10:39

Oh yes, stir that into zoodles. It literally takes what? Five minutes or less to make that, and then you've made your raw zood noodles. Think about it for a second you do not even have to cook this. You don't cook the sauce, you don't cook the noodles. So it's a way to get more raw, but you don't have to cook. So when it's hot outside, you don't even have to heat up the house. But not only that, you're not standing over a stove or waiting for things to cook. It's done right, then, and it's cool, it's refreshing and, honestly, your body is going to love it because it's raw, and nine out of 10 of us, maybe even more don't get enough raw on a regular basis.

Speaker 2: 11:18

And it really is super fast. We actually have a couple of different devices that make these zoodles. One of them it's a hand crank. One of them you hold the device in your hand and you actually twist the zucchini into it. You can have an entire zucchini spiralized within just a couple of minutes straight into your bowl. So it minimizes the amount of mess that you make and, like you said, you don't have to cook it. So there's no boiling of water, waiting for it to boil, then putting the noodles in it, waiting for those to cook. This is just near instant into your bowl. You have the sauce. Many times we'll make enough to where we have some extra, so you have it on hand in your fridge ready to go. You would have a meal within five minutes in very easy cleanup, because you don't have a big message you've created and inside of Pi, we'll go ahead and link to our favorite spiralizers for you.

Speaker 1: 12:07

So if you're not inside our free group podcast insiders experience, this is the perfect time to join at poweronplantscom forward slash P-I-E. That's poweronplantscom Pi and we will put those links in there for you, linking to both our favorite spiralizers and, last but not least, stir fry. I love zucchini and stir fry and the sauce makes all the difference here, and because zucchini is so neutral, it will take on almost any flavor that you put on it. Again, the asian nut sauce that we have in the original cookbook is really amazing on this. But you could use anything that you like on your stir fries. That's whole food, plant-based, oil-free, sugar-free. That tastes great.

Speaker 1: 12:54

There are so many different ways you can season stir fry it lights me up thinking about it and throw some tofu in there or some tempeh in that stir fry to get the meatiness going, and then you've got your chunks of zucchini and your carrots and your onions and your broccoli, whatever you like. Think about color too when you're doing stir fry. We need to do an episode on stir fry. That would be really good. I'm making myself hungry right now, so do not forget, when you're making stir fry to add your zucchini in. I would say, add it towards the end of making your stir fry, because it gets very soft and you want to keep those stir fry veggies crunchy. It's just most delicious that way.

Speaker 1: 13:30

There you have it. Five easy ways to use your zucchini. Add it to oats. Number two smoothies and smoothie bowls. Number three soups and stews. Number three soups and stews. Number four make some zoodles and you can get more information on making that easy inside our free group pie and then make a stir fry Absolutely delicious. So this week, find the one way of these five that you want to enjoy more zucchini or maybe you have your own idea Get it into your life and post it inside Pi. We cannot wait to celebrate with you. Have an incredible week, friend, and we'll see you next time on Power on Plants. Thank you.