Happy Wednesday! 

It still feels so weird not doing a blog post every day! I originally wrote this post last week until I realized it was Jacob's birthday and changed my schedule to write a post just for him. I still wanted to share this recipe face-off, but I've added in some updates since last week in italics where applicable. 

This past Sunday Tj and I had a nice day. We finally went to the famous Tivoli Road bakery that's nearby and got some breakfast treats and we picked up a delicious baguette. We did some groceries and went to the market and the gym (I did the exact same thing this past Saturday!) and then watched some Queer Eye on Netflix (I'm obsessed!) (I'm still obsessed - almost finished both seasons now). And I cut up some bread and tomatoes and cheese and put out some pickles and deli meat and olive oil and it was so familiar because this was something we used to do all the time in Toronto (This weekend I made the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever!)

Anyways the point is I filled up on snacks and didn't make the dinner I was planning LOL. So I made it Monday night instead. I have been having a major craving for Pasta with lots of cheese! But in attempt to be a bit healthier, I am trying two new pasta replacements in a recipe face-off!

It's not quite a recipe face-off since I'm not really following a recipe. I am using store-bought sauce and grated cheese to keep it simple. But I am testing to see which, if either, of these pasta alternatives holds up to the real deal.

It has to be said nothing will ever beat fresh pasta. That is the hands-down winner. I'll have to save that for a night out at a restaurant or another trip to Italy. I'm looking for something that will be equally satisfying as store-bought pasta to have on a semi-regular basis.

In one corner… zoodles. Spiralized zucchini noodles. I had these in London and was impressed, I just remember they weren't really filling.

In the other corner… Red lentil pasta. Lots of protein in this one, but what does it taste like? Let the battle begin! 

Taste:

Zoodles tasted like zucchini. It was nice with all the sauce and cheese, but it still tasted like vegetable.

Red Lentil pasta tasted almost exactly like regular pasta! I'd say it's better than whole wheat pasta too (which I find tastes like cardboard)

Price:

They were both 3-4 dollars. More expensive than regular pasta but comparable to each other.

Texture:

Zoodles were kind of goopy. I think mixing half spaghetti, have zoodles would be the best combo!

Red Lentil pasta: tasted like regular pasta but not as soft? Hard to describe. I'd say it's 90% the same as regular pasta but side by side you'd probably notice a difference. The red lentil pasta was the winner!

Winner:

Drum roll… the winner is the Red Lentil pasta! The zoodles would be great on a hot summer day but in the end it was too much vegetable for my main course. I will definitely try it again, mixing it with spaghetti, or maybe following an actual recipe for zoodles. But even Tj asked for seconds of the red lentil pasta, so I know it was good!

Hope you're having a great week so far :) I'll see you Friday!