I’m going to keep this week’s faves short and sweet — or at least I’m going to attempt to.Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not exactly short on words… So let’s see how this goes.

As I mentioned back in my fails post, I’m not a huge fan of spaghetti squash. Nothing about it reminds me of pasta and I’m not a huge fan of the taste. But when Eric requested spaghetti and meatballs last weekend, I decided to try another way to bulk up my pasta with veggies — zucchini noodles.

I know that you can buy a specific tool for making noodles out of zucchini, but I just used my mandolin to julienne one zucchini into small pieces. I sauteed the “noodles” in a bit of olive oil until they were slightly cooked, but still crunchy (a little al dente) and then mixed them in with my spaghetti and sauce.  So good. You couldn’t even really notice the difference between the zucchini and the actual pasta. I’m sold. I also whipped up a concoction for lunch yesterday of zucchini noodles, chickpeas and tomatoes and it was quite tasty.

After being cooped up inside for three days, we decided to venture out last night for date night. We went to Bistro Niko in Buckhead. We’ve been there before and it was delicious, so we figured, why not? And man, it might have been even tastier this time.  We started the meal with these little cheese puffs called gourgeres. I didn’t have time to snap a pic of them because we devoured them. I could eat four baskets of them.

For my main, I ordered the horseradish crusted cod with vegetable couscous and a lemon-olive oil emulsion. IT WAS SO GOOD. I can never get my fish that delicious when I cook it at home. It managed to be light and rich at the same time. Mmmm. Of course we saved room for dessert and got the chocolate sundae. This is the most off the charts sundae — chocolate and vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, crushed hazelnut brittle, brownie pieces and toasted marshmallow on top. I even allowed Eric to have a few bites…

It was the perfect ending to a long, snow and ice filled week. If you live in Atlanta and are looking for a good date place, you cannot beat Bistro Niko.