Awesome Pasta Alternative

I have met people who hate chocolate and coffee, and while I just cannot fathom that feeling, I have yet to meet anyone who hates pasta. Pasta is just so yummy, but we all know it's loaded with starchy carbs, and most of us are not Michael Phelps, so bad carbs are not our friends.

Yes, you can buy whole wheat pasta and organic pasta, and while that's all well and good, you can't get around the fact that it has still got refined stuff in it. I mean, you have to refine the ingredients to some extent to get them to stick together to make a noodle, you know? Another fact of life is simply that if you are serious about losing weight, eating pasta is NOT going to help without a tremendous amount of exercise--no matter what the organic, whole wheat pasta company is telling you.

Have you ever heard of spaghetti squash? While that is a great alternative, it is not always easy to find at the grocery store, hard to cut in half (although, I hear clerks at grocery stores will cut them for you if you ask nice), and take awhile to bake. It is also not quite as cost-effective as pasta tends to be. Still, it's a super great, healthy alternative. If you have time to bake it (face down, about 30-40 minutes at 375), all you have to do is halve it, bake it, discard the seeds, and scoop out the stringy, fleshy part with a fork.

However, I just learned another really great one. It's easier, faster, and perhaps more cost-effective.

I came across this simple pasta alternative in a magazine where this girl who had formerly weighed over 200 lbs., lost almost half her body weight by exercising and changing her diet! One thing that she did to change her diet was to buy zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, and/or any long, substantial veggie. She simply cut the veggies into long, thin strips and parboiled them till they were soft. I tried this with a zucchini, but the taste was a little weirdly bitter, coupled with spaghetti sauce. Instead of boiling the second time, I sautéd onions and garlic and then added the zucchini strips once the garlic started to brown. (The onions and garlic toned the "zucchini-ness" down.) Then I added low sodium sauce with a very small portion of browned ground turkey in it. The whole thing took about 10 minutes. Yay for fiber, protein, vitamins, good carbs, losing weight, and saving money!

 

Other Helpful Hints:
 

**Is cutting the veggies into long strips slowing you down? Why not try just slicing the veggie into 1/4 inch slices and calling it "ravioli"!

**Alternate the type of veggie you use, or combine several types at once. That way you are sure to get all the nutrients that these plants can provide.

**I hear that boiling veggies robs them of vitamins that sautéing actually locks in. . .so you can kill two birds with one stone by sautéing!

**Always sauté in a cast iron skillet. It adds taste and iron.

**To lose even more weight (and especially if your doctor wants you to limit fat of all kinds), try sautéing in white wine rather than olive oil. For even fewer calories (suggested to patients recovering from a stroke or heart attack), you can sauté in water; however, you really have to monitor because water evaporates very quickly.