Zucchini Spaghetti Mason Jar Salad

Hi All,

Incredibly sorry for the long delay.  The trouble with being a workaholic is, all you do is work.  Although, I did take it a step further; I decided to work my 4+ jobs AND have a boyfriend, and a newborn niece, and crash my car.  Yup, been a little busy, but I have still been making salads, just not blogging them, so I am going to try to get caught up here in the near future.

So, as we enter fall, I am still clinging to the last vestiges of summer.  It occurs to me that I made it through the entire summer of 2015 without making one of my favorite barbeque foods: spaghetti salad.  It is definitely one that you love or hate: cold spaghetti with Italian dressing, sauce, and that miracle blend of Salad Supreme seasoning.  I started thinking about that a few weeks back, and decided to mason-jar-it-up with a healthy twist.  Rather than using pasta, I decided to use zucchini pasta.

Of course with the low-carb/gluten-free trends, there are a range of recipes and diets aimed at committing carb genocide in our diets.  One of the crazes has been turning vegetables into pasta.  There are a number of gadgets ranging from the AS SEEN ON TV “Veggetti,” which is kind of like a hand-held pencil sharpener for vegetables, to the more mechanized variety like this one:

 Speaking of tools, my sister revolutionized the making of mason jar salads.  I have lamented not buying wide-mouthed jars, but because I am cheap, I refuse to buy new jars (seeing as the ones that I have are still serviceable).  My sister bought and has been using a canning funnel to fill her jars, and it is AMAZING!  BEST IDEA EVER.  And it only cost like $2.  I highly encourage you to go that route if you bought standard jars.

Aside over; back to the salad: So I decided to use zucchini noodles in place of the pasta.  The result was HIGHLY successful, so much so that I made this two weeks in a row, fed myself, mom, the boyfriend, and even one of mom’s coworkers.  I threw in some turkey pepperoni and some light cheese for some protein, and in the second batch, I added olives.  The flavor is good, the texture is nice, and overall this was a wonderfully refreshing and filling lunch. So, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

This recipe makes 11 or 12 salads

Dressing:

1.5 c Kraft Fat Free ZESTY Italian Dressing

.75 c pasta sauce (I used the cheap crappy canned kind)

1 container McCormick’s Salad Supreme Seasoning

½ c Red wine vinegar

Salad:

8 zucchinis (approx. 6 inches long)cut into noodles (I used the smallest setting on the veggetti device)

2-10oz packages turkey pepperoni (cut up)

8 oz Kraft 2% Milk Sharp cheddar cheese (cut into ¼-inch cubes)

1 pint cherry tomatoes (halved)

2 cucumbers (seeded and chopped)

4 bell peppers (I used red and yellow)

2 bunches scallions- chopped

Chopped green olives (optional)

5-6 carrots- chopped

Directions:

1.       Put all dressing ingredients into a sealed container and shake.

2.       Prep all vegetables.

3.       Layer:

Dressing

Tomatoes

Cucumber

Peppers

Carrots

Pepperoni

Zucchini noodles

Cheese

Seal jars tightly, store upright, and enjoy for up to seven days.