Thursday, April 3, 2014

Do you spiralize?...

I do.

From time to time I'm going to highlight a product that has proven to be helpful - either for our health (mental and physical), our pocket books, or just plain fun, with additional hints for "prepping."

We're trying to maintain a semblance of a Paleo/Primal diet in our home.  So exactly how does one do spaghetti without eating pasta?

Simple.

Make zucchini noodles.

Back in August I purchased a Paderno World Cuisine A4982799 Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer

 When purchasing from Amazon, I always carefully peruse the reviews.  The Paderno spirilizer had more positive than negative reviews so I decided to order it.  At that time it cost $23.76 plus $7.24 in shipping costs for a total of $31.00.

Since Paleo/Primal eating is becoming so popular, they are now charging $41.00 plus $11.90 for shipping.  That's quite a hike in price and I think they're making a huge mistake, but that's just me.

Anyhoo, I carefully searched the Amazon site and found another one priced at $25.95, which I am quite certain is the same exact product.

New and Essential Spiralizer Tri-Blade Spiral Vegetable Slicer 

 When I first received my spirilizer I thought, "Did you just buy another useless kitchen gadget?" 

It appears not.  I use this handy little gadget all the time.  Last night we dined on huge plates of zucchini noodles with red sauce and homemade meatballs.  I've come to actually prefer zucchini noodles over wheat noodles, in terms of taste.  We do run them through the microwave for a few minutes to soften them up before adding the sauce and meatballs.

The unit comes with three different cutting blades; One for skinny noodles, one for larger noodles, and one to make wider ribbon like cuts.  Almost nothing is safe from my spirilizer - carrots, apples, cucumbers, zucchini, and sweet potatoes have all found their way through my spirilizer.

A word of caution:  This is a plastic unit and will not tolerate being manhandled.  I think the main problem is people shoving too hard on the handle (although when doing harder veggies like sweet potatoes, I've used quite a bit of pressure and have not experienced any problems.)

Would I pay $41.00 to replace this if it broke?  Probably not.

Would I pay $25.95 to replace it?  You bet!

New and Essential Spiralizer Tri-Blade Spiral Vegetable Slicer 

and

here's a nifty little blog dedicated exclusively to spirilizing, with tons of how-to's and lots of recipes:

Inspiralized




No comments: