New Recipe #1 - HG's Noodled-Up Zucchini Pancakes

One of my goals in 2009 is to try at least 1 new recipe a week.  I have so many wonderful, healthy, lowfat/low-cal cookbooks, and I haven’t even opened many of them, let alone try out the recipes in them.

So, today I spent a good amount of time perusing a few of my faves, including The Hungry Girl Cookbook.  I went to three different grocery stores today to gather up the ingredients for all of the new recipes I wanted to try out.  I spent $245, but a lot of that was for spices and pantry staples that I didn’t have on hand.  Since I’m determined to try out new recipes this year, I wanted to make sure I had all of the necessary essentials ready to go.

Tonight I made Hungry Girl’s Noodled-Up Zucchini Pancakes

Nutrition Info: 1 point per pancake! 50 calories, 0.5g fat, 295 mg sodium, 9g carbs, 1g fiber, 2g sugar, 3g protein.

You’ll need the following ingredients:

2 packages House Foods Tofu Shirataki, Spaghetti Shape*
4 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup Heart Smart Bisquick, or any dry pancake mix of your choice
1 cup diced mushrooms
3/4 cup chopped green onions
1 cup egg substitute
1 tsp salt
(my addition: several shakes of Spike seasoning mix)

Makes 15 servings/pancakes

*The House Foods Tofu Shirataki is probably the ingredient you haven’t used before.  I had never heard of them, but found them easily at Safeway in the refrigerated section where they keep the other tofu products.  They come in a bag of water, which is sort of strange and cool, all at the same time.  They have a sort of “squishy,” chewy, slippery texture, but tasted really good in the recipe.  HG says that you should always make sure to completely rinse them and dry them off before using them in any recipe.

Directions:

1. Rinse and drain noodles well.  Pat dry. I placed them between several sheets of paper towel, just to make sure all the moisture was removed.
2. Put noodles in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave for 1 minute.
3. Remove from microwave, drain excess liquid, and cut noodles into pieces (no more than 3 inches long). Set aside.
4. Using a Cuisinart (if you have one) shred zucchini and dice mushrooms
5. Chop green onions
6. Combine egg, pancake mix, Spike seasoning, and salt in a bowl.
7. Add noodles, zucchini, mushrooms, and green onions to bowl.  Mix well.  This is essential to make sure that each pancake contains an even amount of each ingredient.  It should look something like this:

Spray a nonstick pan with Pam and set over medium heat.

Evenly place 3  1/3-cup scoops into pan, using a spatula to flatten into pancakes.

Cook until both sides of each pancake are golden brown, flipping several times. I’d highly recommend using a large spatula to flip these pancakes.  The squirmy noodles make them a challenge to flip nicely, unless you have a large surface area.

Repeat this process 4 times, each time removing the pan from the heat and respraying with Pam.

These are yummy!!  They remind me of the Egg Fu Yong we used to order from our favorite Chinese restaurant when I was a kid.  Not sure why, because they don’t taste particularly Asian, but they did evoke that memory for me. I’d recommend eating them with some hot sauce, just to give them a bit of a kick.

I made these for dinner, and ate 2 along with a link of chipotle chicken sausage, but these would make a delicious breakfast or light lunch.  They’re very filling.

The only problem I had with this entire recipe was this:

Lots of pots and pans!

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