9 Healthy Foods We ALWAYS Have in Our Pantry

How To Prepare Zoodles

Cut Your Zucchini Noodles The Right Way

To make zoodles, cut both ends off of the zucchini. Slice the zucchini into two halves. From there, use a tool like the Kitchenaid spiralizer attachment that screws onto your stand mixer or a free-standing tool like the one from OXO, or an Inspiralizer to unspool fine or extra fine zucchini ribbons from the core of the zucchini.

In a pinch, you could try using a vegetable peeler to peel long planks off the zucchini and then slice them into noodles. Or, cut the planks using a chef's knife and then further slice them into matchsticks. Once you've processed the zucchini into zoodles, store them in the refrigerator where they taste best within three days.

While zoodles can be eaten raw and dressed up in pesto or another salad dressing, if you want to cook them, these are the three methods to try.

How To Cook Sautéed Zoodles

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add two teaspoons of oil (olive or coconut) or a pat of unsalted butter. Toss in the zoodles (spiralized from one zucchini), salt to taste, and sauté for several minutes, turning with tongs until the color of the zoodles deepens and they become soft.

Serving Suggestion: After oil is heated, stir in thinly sliced garlic or minced fresh ginger to sizzle and scent the oil. This would be the time to also add a dash of spice like a curry powder, if you like. Once zoodles are cooked, garnish with a scattering of toasted coconut, shredded fresh cilantro and/or mint leaves, and chopped scallions. Pair it with fish.

Zoodle Recipes That'll Make You Want More

Shrimp Scampi with Zoodles

Swap out traditional noodles with zoodles for a flavorful, healthy dish. (via Feel Good Foodie)

Spiralized Zucchini Chicken Noodle Soup Jars

This recipe is the perfect low-carb meal prep idea. Just add boiling water, microwave and enjoy! (via The Girl on Bloor)

Zoodles with Tomatoes and Capers

This raw five-ingredient zoodle recipe will take you through all the warm months. It’s fresh, fast, and furiously flavorful. (via A Spicy Perspective)

Pesto Zoodles

This delicious summertime recipe adds color, nutrition and fun to your meals. (via Feel Good Foodie)

Vietnamese Chicken Pho with Zoodles

This healthy zoodle recipe is gluten free, paleo, and oh-so tantalizing! (via A Spicy Perspective)

Avocado Zucchini Carbonara Pasta

There's so many options that'll come up when searching how to cook zoodles, but none of them will taste like this avocado zucchini carbonara pasta recipe. It's not complicated to make, but it is pretty to plate! (via Half Baked Harvest)

Vegan Avocado Bars

If you are craving brownies on a raw food diet, these creamy avocado-cacao bars are sure to help you get your fix. (via Brit + Co)

Raw Vegan Coconut Cheesecake Bites

These coconut cheesecake bites are decadent, so you can portion control with these little bites. (via Brit + Co)

Raw Vegan Blue Majik Nice Cream Bowls

For a raw take on ice cream, blend frozen bananas with Blue Majik powder (a nutrient dense powder derived from spirulina). Your taste buds will be in for a vibrant surprise. (via Brit + Co.)

Two-Ingredient Banana Nice Cream

For those days when you’re desperate for dessert but don’t have the patience to make something elaborate, whip up a helping of two-ingredient vegan banana ice cream. (via Brit + Co)

Raw Beet Ravioli With Vegan Cashew Cheese

These look like they belong out of a Michelin-starred restaurant, but the trick to homemade, raw beet ravioli is simpler than you think. (via Pickles & Honey)

Creamy Cucumber Gazpacho

Creamy soups aren’t out of the raw equation, as demonstrated by this recipe. Don’t toast the pine nuts in the topping to keep this recipe 100% raw. (via Full of Plants)

Raw, Vegan Caprese Salad

Learn how to make raw cashew-based mozzarella for a simple, diet-compliant Caprese salad. (via Green Evi)

Spicy Thai Salad

We’re used to salad, but this creamy avocado-herb dressing is a revelation. (via The Full Helping)

Raw Zucchini Roll-Ups

Though these green snacks can be consumed solo, they make one righteous party app. (via Green Evi)

Easy Recipe for Raw Vegan Carrot Cake

You’ll start making up reasons to celebrate after your first bit of raw vegan carrot cake. Top it with a layer of fluffy vegan cream cheese frosting. (via Minimalist Baker)

Spicy Strawberry Mango Salsa

You'll find a bit of culinary magic, where spicy meets sweet. (via The Edgy Veg)

Raw Vegan Banana Pecan Paletas

If you’re craving something cold and creamy, you can sate your sweet tooth with one of these three-ingredient banana pecan paletas. They’re refined-sugar-free and receive sweetness from the bananas themselves. (via Dora's Table)

Lasagna Raw Vegan Meal

On the savory side, raw vegan food doesn’t just mean salads. Lasagna made with ribbons of zucchini instead of noodles and filled with a variety of sauces is just as worthy of adoration as the traditional baked version. (via Green Evi)

Carrot and Zucchini Pasta with Avocado-Cucumber Sauce

The recipe name says it all. Make this when you need pasta, stat. (via Downshiftology)

Raw Key Lime Pie

This won’t taste much different from the original version. The creamy coconut-avocado filling is an utter delight. (via Hello Veggie)

Vegan Broccoli Salad

Don't sacrifice any flavor when eating raw vegan foods. This recipe makes sure to infuse tons of fun, savory tastes! (via Crowded Kitchen)

“Raw”maine Taco Boats

Taco Tuesdays won’t be a thing of the past. Eat the colors of the rainbow with these assembled beauties. (via Minimalist Baker)

Raw Vegan Fruit Cake

Think of this raw vegan fruit cake as the most loaded-with-goodness granola bar ever. A mix of dried fruits and nuts give it an irresistibly crunchy, chew texture, with a sweet flavor that’s like a celebration on your tongue. (via A Virtual Vegan)

Creamy Beet Detox Soup

Avocado is the secret ingredient to make this soup silky. (via Hello Glow)

Vegan "Crab" Melts

Hearts of palm take the place of crab in this raw vegan recipe that's perfect for lunch or brunch. (via This Wife Cooks)

Black Bottom Raw Cheesecake

When your need for chocolate becomes unbearable, try your hand at a silky raw, vegan cheesecake with a decadent chocolate crust. (via Connoisseurus Veg)

Fresh Summer Salad with Arugula, Corn, + Spicy Cashew Dressing

Happily crunch away on this delicious raw vegan salad recipe! Finishing it off with the spicy dressing is supreme. (via The First Mess)

Raw Vegan Pad Thai Recipe

This lovely dish can be meal-prepped in mason jars so you can keep up with your raw diet even on busy weekdays. (via Fit Living Eats)

Raw Pecan Sandies

Yep, you can even have cookies. It’s as easy as adding the ingredients to the food processor, rolling the mixture into balls, and topping with pecan halves. (via The Full Helping)

Raw Southwest Zoodle Bowl

Come for the colors, stay for the flavorful nutrients. (via Chef Bai)

Spiralized Raw Beet Salad with Blood Oranges

Beets and blood oranges combine for a salad that let’s you get your sweet fix healthfully. (via Salt & Lavender)

Raw Mexican Hot Chocolate Truffles

Decadent and rich Mexican hot chocolate truffles will ensure you don’t reach for sugar-laden bonbons instead. (via Hummusapien)

Raw Avocado Pesto Zucchini Noodles

Pesto zoodles make a quick meal when hanger strikes. Thank goodness for that. (via Simply Quinoa)

"Playing Elle Woods was just the highlight of my career, my early career for sure," she tells People. "She was such an underdog, and just trying to find those pieces of her that [were] really vulnerable. That feeling that people underestimate you and think you can't do things."

"I had no idea when we were making it that it was going to touch so many people's hearts," she continues. "The thing I love about Elle Woods is I share that performance with so many young people because of the stage play...I'll have all these cool people come up to me and be like 'I played Elle Woods!'...We're both Elle Woods!"

Elle Woods is, without a doubt, a feminist icon, and it’s safe to say that Reese Witherspoon took her character very seriously.

You may be thinking: “What crazy techniques could Reese Witherspoon have used to create Elle Woods for Legally Blonde? It’s just a character!” At first, we thought that too. Was it really that hard to play a wannabe socialite on a mission to win back her boyfriend before using her intellect to crush it at Harvard Law and save her friend from a murder conviction à la her knowledge of perms? In short — yes, yes it was, and Reese spilled it all on how she transformed into the leading lady we know (and love) today.

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Reese mentions that she's always loved how much of a feminist Elle is. “She could have all this really strong ideology about what women could accomplish but she could also be very obsessed with clothes and hair and makeup, which a lot of young women are,” she says.

“The costume designer Sophie De Rakoff and I collaborated — this was our first collaboration — to create Elle Woods," she continues. "In the script it said she had been, like, a sunscreen model. So we knew we were gonna have to do some bikini looks and we were going to have to do bright colors, we wanted her hair really bright blonde."

Elle was meant to come off to others as a classic California Barbie stereotype, the kind of surface-level person who never spent a moment thinking critically. To accomplish this, Sophie and Reese set out to find the perfect costumes to match Elle's 90s supermodel hair, and it was pretty intense, at least according to Reese.

"I remember the first day of going to Harvard that Sophie wanted [Elle] in an all pink leather look because she wanted her to look like a piece of luggage," Reese recalls. "We went to Frederick's of Hollywood to buy the bunny costume together and so I had to try on all these bustiers and make sure that all the bits were in the right places."

But the “look” isn’t all that Reese was committed to. Reese needed to become Elle, sorority houses and all. “I would go and just hang out and listen to what they talked about, and the way they did their nails, and the way they decorated their rooms," she says. "It really influenced how I held my body, how I used my hands in the performance, the cadence of my speech…I took the part really seriously. It was all about just creating [a] character that I really understood throughout the entire shooting, so that you could throw anything my way and I could still stay in character.”

Whew — that’s a lot. Reese’s commitment to the role truly shines through the screen, and has *literally* changed pop culture forever. I mean, we have probably dressed as Elle Woods for Halloween at least a half dozen times.

“The impact of Legally Blonde has been unreal," she continues. "Just the idea that I've traveled all over the world...and had women come up to me and say, ‘I became a lawyer because of Elle Woods’...it's just meaningful. It's very resonant at a certain time in your life where you're really trying to discover who you are, and it's why it's one of my favorite movies I've ever done. It's one of my favorite characters I ever created.”

Honestly, we have so much respect for Reese and the incredible effort she put into perfecting the Elle we've idolized for decades. It’s unimaginable to quantify the impact this character has had on women — and society — as a whole, but if we had to guess, we know it would be enormous.