Sideways spiral — Lizard Chinchilla

I bought a gadget on Amazon that slices veggies into spirals.

Back story: I once used a mandoline to slice fennel and shaved a sliver off my thumb. Nine stitches. To this day, I flinch when I see one used on a cooking show.

With knives, I am totally confident in my skills. With other cutting mechanisms, I border on inept.

So I thought, sure, why not buy one more kitchen trinket that cuts veggies and flesh? The ER is right down the street and I still have 99.90 of my fingers left in play.

Today I got the thing out of the box (it's been tucked away for a while) and my initial impression was that it looked like it came from a dollar store. It's lightweight to the point of flimsy and feels like a cheap toy.

Yet I was determined that the zucchini I snagged at the farmer's market was going to become zoodles, so I double checked our supply of gauze bandages and that my health insurance card was handy and gave it a spin.

My initial impression was too hasty. The little sucker actually has suction cup feet, so it stays firmly on the counter. Once the veggie is propped up between the rotating gripper and the little metal plug blade guard, the gourd felt pretty secure.

So I cranked it up. And though it sounded rather rickety, out came these lovely spirals of faux pasta without a single drop of blood being spilled.

Damn. This thing doesn't suck. There are other blades, too. One that makes chips. I will turn produce into all sorts of shapes just because I can.

We topped the gorgeous gourd linguini with Simple Truth three-cheese pasta sauce, sautéed onions and turkey meat balls. With a sprinkle of Parmesan, we enjoyed a quick, low-carb dinner. Oh sure, a nice piece of garlic cheese toast have been a welcome addition with all that delightful sauce. But that would be a little counterproductive toward the healthy dinner goal.

In the end, bread wasn't needed. Zoodles will be a staple around here.

If I can summon the courage to buy another mandoline, I can already see a zucchini lasagna bubbling away in the oven this fall.