I've been wanting a Spiralizer for awhile now, and we finally ordered one (this one from Paderno World Cuisine). Since it arrived, I've literally spiralized everything we've eaten since! Obsessed! What a new, fun way to eat your produce. Anything that makes healthy eating easier and more interesting is worth every penny in my book.

Here's my first time spiralizing carrots. I made them into an uh-mazing raw salad that you'll see down below.

The first meal I made with the spiralizer though was this one that I found on the Whole30 Instagram feed a few weeks back. It was so delicious that my chef/foodie husband actually raved about it, took a photo of it, and then practically licked his bowl. Since he initially scoffed at "noodles" made of anything besides grains, I considered that a victory!

Zucchini Noodles with Avocado Cream Sauce (Serves 1)

recipe as follows from @whole30recipes

Avocado Cream Sauce:

1/2 avocado
juice of 1/2 lime
2 tablespoons of coconut milk (make sure to read ingredients! I use Natural Value brand, which is canned)
2-3 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1-2 cloves of finely chopped garlic (depending how much you want to ward off vampires)
salt to taste

If you have a food processor, you can just put all of the ingredients except the zucchini into your food processor and blend until creamy! Otherwise: In a bowl, mash the avocado with a fork. Add the lime juice, coconut milk, cilantro and garlic and combine until creamy. Finally add salt & pepper to taste.

For the zucchini:

Turn your zucchini into noodles either with a spiralizer or julienne peeler (I use a Paderno brand spiralizer). Sauté the zucchini in Whole 30-compliant oil for a few minutes until tender.

Toss the cooked zucchini in a bowl with the sauce until well-mixed, then enjoy immediately!

{My note: I didn't have lime or cilantro, so I used fresh lemon juice and basil leaves instead. It was awesome.}

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What did I make next?

For breakfast this morning I cut the "zoodles" (as they're called in the spiralizer world) into smaller pieces after I spiralized them and combined them in a pan with sweet potato hash. I tossed it and cooked it a few minutes longer just until the zucchini was slightly tender and then served it in a bowl with eggs fried in ghee. Delish.

Last night I made spiralized sweet potato fries (apparently called "sweet patoodles") for my 4-year-old by tossing them with some avocado oil and sea salt and roasting them in the oven until crispy (400 degrees for about 20 minutes; I kept checking them and tossing them a little). After the first sweet, crispy, salty bite, my daughter said, "Can we have these curly fries every single day, Mommy?" Why yes, yes we can.

And then for lunch, I created the perfect raw salad with my spiralizer, a salad I could honestly eat every single day. Here's what it had:

Spiralized raw carrots and zucchini
1/2 avocado, cut into chunks
Shredded chicken
Diced dried apricots
Crispy pecans, chopped

I tossed it all in a bowl with my fingers and then drizzled some vinaigrette dressing on top (3:1 ratio of olive oil to apple cider vinegar, squirt of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper). Then I added shredded basil leaves for a little zing.

It was seriously the best salad I've had in a long time. There's just something about those curly raw "noodles" - being able to curl your fork around something in your bowl and taking a big, fluffy, crunchy bite.

It feels decadent in some way, even though they're 100% veggies and super healthy for you.

Here are a few tips I've learned so far:

Once you have your spiralizer out and ready, spiralize a bunch of items at once. Put them in airtight containers and save for other meals later that day or week.
If zucchini is too soft, it's more difficult to spiralize. I cut mine in half and made each end flat and that helped a lot.
There are tons of spiralizer recipes out there - the blogger behind Inspiralized has become famous for her spiralizer recipes. She even has a handy "how-to" page.
Clean your spiralizer right after using it - trust me, it's better than letting the food crust on it and trying to clean it even 30 minutes later. I have a sprayer on my kitchen sink and that works super well getting all the food particles off. And because there's no motor, you can put all parts in the sink and clean them off thoroughly.

So yeah, I'm totally sold!

If you're ready to try out the spiralizer, here's the one I got on Amazon: