Want moist juicy chops, yet love a grilled sear? Combine the best of both by cooking them in a slow cooker, then give them a quick finish on the grill. The slow cooker ensures the chops won’t dry out. This recipe couldn’t be easier.

Ingredients

• 4 bone-in pork chops 3/4 inch thick

• 1/2 t salt

• 1/4 t pepper

• 1 medium onion cut in 1/4 inch slices

• 1 lemon cut in 1/4 slices

• 1/4 c. Brown sugar

• 1/4 c. ketchup

Directions

Place chops and half the lemon slices in slow cooker

Sprinkle with salt & pepper

Drizzle with ketchup 

Place remainder of lemons on top

Cook on low for six hours till juices run clear

Optional: Just before serving, give the chops a quick sear on the grill. The juices from the cooker should be enough moisture, but use a bit of a complimentary hotel butter for a shiny, herb infused finish.

As popular as Zoodles are, few spiralizers can deliver a realistic pasta substitute in terms of veggie noodle size and cut. Spiralizers are a pain to clean and tend to require lots of elbow grease to create a zoodle spiral. The Nunewares 4-Blade Spiralizer is not only very easy to use, but has a suction cup bottom to keep it steady, and it cuts four types of noodle sizes, including a very similar cut, texture, and diameter to spaghetti and fettuccine pasta.

NUNEWARES 4-BLADE SPIRALIZER FEATURES

• Nunewares 4-Blade Spiralizer is compact and takes very little storage space while being able to handle all your family’s veggie-noodle needs. Despite its’ smaller size, it can quickly and easily spiralize enough zoodles for just one person, and entire family meal, zoodles for storage in airtight containers for use during the week, or enough zoodles for entertaining purposes.
• There is a clear pull-out drawer with a 500ml capacity to keep the spiralized veggies together for easy collection to measuring into a recipe.
• It assembles quite easily and spiralizes the vegetables quickly with little effort. There is a fully illustrated instruction manual with recipes.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT THIS SPIRALIZER

In addition to the compact size, there are three things that really set this spiralizer apart for me.

First, there four settings depending on the cut you want, including traditional ribbon style, as well as unique 3mm and 5mm and 5.5mm sizes, which are much more similar to actual pasta within your zoodle dishes. It is much more similar to spaghetti and fettuccine within a cooked dish.

There is also the slicing function within the ribbon style, ideal for cutting veggies for salad, pizza toppings, or sliced vegetables for recipes. This is much faster, easier and safer than traditional veggie chopping with a sharp knife.

Second, there is a large suction cup on the base and a level that is used to adhere the suction cup to the surface so that it stays steady while in use. This is a particularly unique feature that makes this device much easier to use.

Third, the handle is amazingly easy to rotate for smooth, long, simple to make zoodles. Combined with the suction cup base, making zoodles quickly can be done one-handed without exertion. It is easy enough to use that you could even rotate the handle with your non-dominant hand.

EASY TO USE

This is probably the easiest spiralizer I have used in terms of how much work it is to rotate the arm, it is easy to do one-handed and does not require a great deal of effort. The reason is the ultra-sharp Japanese 420-grade hardened stainless steel blades. As the Nunewares manual informs, be aware these blades are very sharp so keep children away and exercise caution when cleaning, using the brush that is included with the spiralizer.

A COST EFFECTIVE WAY TO MAKE ZOODLES AT HOME

The amount of zucchini noodles contained in the green vegetable keeper seen in the photos below is the same weight (20 ounces) my local branch of a regional grocery chain currently charges $6.99 for their store-brand pack. I paid $1.25 at the same store for the same amount of zucchini you see in the container and mine were fun to make, the exact diameter and size I want, and best of all, fresh.

THE RESULTS

This is a very useful and compact device that quickly and easily makes well-formed spirals in four sizes, including the highly useful pasta-substitute of fettuccine size spirals.

While many spiralizers make attractive spirals, few make a noodle width that is a realistic substitute for pasta within a pasta dish.

This made for a very enjoyable, fast, attractive, healthy and economical meal for the family with little clean-up and fast prep time. If you want to cut down on carbs or eat more veggies in general, the Nunesware 4-Blade Spiralizer makes fast work out of making fresh zoodles at home.

I also especially like that the skin of my favorite veggies gives an attractive texture and appealing colors to simple meals.

ZOODLE RECIPES

Vegetable noodles make a great option for carb-conscious diets, including Paleo. It is also an option for gluten-free or gluten-restricted diets.

Now that you can make zoodles that can substitute for pasta in recipes want some recipes? There are four recipes to get you started in the Nunewares instruction booklet, along with full-color photos.

The zoodle recipe seen in this post can be found here with all the step-by-step details. Once you starting zoodling your veggies, soon you’ll have plenty of great recipes of your own!

WHERE TO BUY IT

Find the Nunewares 4-Blade Spiralizer at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078V33JFB/

ABOUT THIS POST

Quite a Kitchen received the Nunewares 4-Blade Spiralizer in exchange for our unbiased review and received compensation for our time and effort. However, our experience with the product and the opinions expressed in this review are 100% ours.

Don’t you hate when Potatoes grow sprouts before you can use them? Keep your potatoes fresh and sprout free with this simple trick.

Potatoes grow sprouts. Good in the ground, not so great in your kitchen. To provide protection to the tender young sprouts, they contain natural defensive toxins called glycoalkaloids.

Can I Eat a Sprouted Potato?

While a sprouting spud hasn’t gone bad, the overall texture begins to degrade. Tiny sprouts can just be scraped away, larger sprouts require more cutting away of the underlying potato itself.

If the sprouts are as large as seen in the picture above, then prepare for a sub-optimal texture potato. It is still technically edible however if said spud is not moldy or green.

The sprouts themselves aren’t dangerous to consume unless in large quantity. But they aren’t good for you like other kinds of sprouts.

How to Stop Potatoes from Sprouting

A simple trick to keep your potatoes fresh and sprout-free are to store them in a brown paper bag with … drumroll please.. an apple.

Yep, an apple emits ethylene gas [1] that prevents the potato from forming sprouts in the first place. No sprouts, decay, or texture changes for five to fifteen weeks! [2] While ethylene gas hastens ripening of green tomatoes, certain roots or fruits such as bananas, it actually inhibits potatoes from sprouting. And when they do sprout, it produces far less in the way of texture changes.

Find more cooking tricks and tips here on Quite A Kitchen!

Sources

1. Prange, Robert K. et al. “Using Ethylene as a Sprout Control Agent in Stored ‘Russet Burbank’ Potatoes.” Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 123.3 (1998): 463-69. Web. 27 July 2016.
2. Yahia, Elhadi M. Modified and Controlled Atmospheres for the Storage, Transportation, and Packaging of Horticultural Commodities. Boca Raton: CRC/Taylor & Francis, 2009.