Hello my Foodie Friends!

Sunny days and warmer weather remind me of some of my treasured childhood experiences. Getting to spend more time outdoors was my favorite for many reasons; sunshine and swimming, the feel of grass on my feet, the sound of the ice cream truck, melting pop sickles and ice cream cones, and playing baseball outdoors until dark. The weekend days allowed me and my brothers and sisters to sleep in a bit. However, we would always awake early and would roll over and talk until my mother came in to get us moving to eat breakfast. 

Our yard was always full of the neighborhood kids. Some of them were there before we even finished breakfast, just waiting for the five Reardon children to come out to play. Among my childhood memories include the visual of the beautiful vegetable gardens that almost every family in my neighborhood had. Don’t get me wrong because as a child I did not like working in the garden. On hot n’ humid days my Mom ordering us to weed and remove bugs from her vegetables was beyond fun!  The bugs looked cool though. My mother and my grandmother took much pride in how big the tomatoes or the eggplants were. When we would come in from playing for lunch or a snack, vegetables were always part of what was served such as a wonderful cucumber and tomato salad, zucchini, or carrot sticks (all that came from the garden). Recently, I was reminiscing with my sister about our childhood friends and us playing Hide N Go Seek in the corn fields next to our neighborhood, the outdoor fun we had, and shared our ongoing challenge of eating those vegetables as adults that we so often were eating as children. 

During the warmer weather, none of us want to be in the hot kitchen for too long. This time of year is all about feeling light and healthy to combat the hot and humid temperatures. The last thing we want to do is stand over a stovetop or turn the oven on. With gorgeous weather and heat waves, we want to spend as much time outside as possible, soaking up the sun rays. However, we still want to eat healthfully. If you want to minimize the time you’ll be in the kitchen but still feel good (from the inside out, of course), then we have a cool tool that may help you feel inspiralized; the Vegetable Spiralizer. Vegetable Spiralizing is your key to healthy and light meals. The spiralizer is a kitchen tool that turns vegetables and fruits into noodles. Those noodles can then be used to make healthy pasta, noodle, salad dishes and more. While these veggie noodles can be cooked, they’re equally as delicious in their raw, cold form – perfect for easy, no-fuss, no-cook meals. By spiralizing, you’re naturally eating more vegetables – without even noticing (especially when they’re covered in a delicious tomato basil sauce!). Vegetables are high in water (such as zucchinis) and help detox your body, ridding it of unwanted toxins and leaving you refreshed and hydrated. Vegetables have an abundance of dietary fiber, which helps keep you fuller longer and help with your everyday digestion. Certain vegetables even help spike the metabolism, such as zucchinis. 

What are the Best Veggies for Spiraling? You can transform all sorts of vegetables into noodles, but the best candidates are those that are firm (not floppy) and long or that can be cut long (if you want long spaghetti that you can easily spiral). One of the best aspects of veggie noodles is their spectacular names. Here are some of the best vegetables for spiraling (Paula found these terms not me):

• Zoodles (zucchini noodles) • Coodles (carrot noodles)
• Swoodles (sweet potato noodles) • Squoodles (squash noodles)
• Boodles (broccoli stem noodles) • Poodles (parsnip noodles)
• Toodles (turnip noodles)

At Compliments to the Chef, your Neighborhood Kitchen and Cutlery store located at 33 Railroad Pl., we carry several brands of Vegetable Spiralizers and even small hand held ones you can bring with you camping or to a friend’s or relative’s house to assist you. Enjoy the outdoors – maybe even start a garden. It will make for some lifelong memories made with family and friends while sharing your culinary creations.  Remember my Foodie Friends, “Life Happens in the Kitchen.” 

 Take Care,
John & Paula