Italian Foods

happy_bunny1990

Can you guys help me find some low calorie italian foods. Italian food is my favorite food in the world.:laugh:

happy_bunny1990

Can you guys help me find some low calorie italian foods. Italian food is my favorite food in the world.:laugh:

heather0mc

i made Garden-Style Lasagna from cookinglight.com

its got a TON of veggies in it. not traditional 'italian style' but it covered the need for pasta. i wanted a big dose of veggies in my lunches and this did the trick.

drawbacks? took at least 2 hours with all the prep work and cook time. i would suggest you read the recipe comments for suggestions/ideas to make it tastier.

good part? i still have 7 servings in my freezer and each time i eat one it tastes great. next time i will add some mushrooms.

another thing to keep in mind:

sometimes i bake some chicken and save it in the fridge. then thru the week i incorporate the chicken into my dinners. one day i made spagetti, then sauteed broc, mush, garlic, onions (cant recall what else) in olive oil. i then added the chicken to warm it up and then put it on top of the spagetti. tasted like i was at olive garden and only had like 400-500 cals!

use 93% + lean ground sirloin. i read a post it was actually better than ground turkey. you can make any kind of italian meal with some sauce, wheat pasta and some beef. i saw a few low cal meat ball recipes on here...dont have time to dig them up but i know they exist!

good luck! :flowerforyou:

FitnessGeek

Recipe is adapted from the "Accidental Vegan" cookbook.

Pasta Primavera
makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
2 quarts of water
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable broth
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tsp sea salt
1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 red bell pepper, seeds removed and cut into strips
1 cup peas, frozen or fresh
1 bunch of Swiss chard (or spinach), trimmed and chopped
1 lb colorful pasta

Cook:
- Start boiling water for the pasta.
- In a medium sauce pan or skillet, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil for 5 min. Add the vegetable broth, basil, sea salt, asparagus, and bell pepper and cook on medium heat for 10 min. Add the peas, and chard/spinach. Cook for another 5 min or until all veggies are soft.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta. When it's ready, drain it, add it to the veggies and cook for another 5 min. Serve hot.

Nutritional Information:
Serving Size- 1/6 of prepared recipe
Calories 330.8
Total Fat 15.4 g
Saturated Fat 8.3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.1 g
Monounsaturated Fat 5.0 g
Cholesterol 65.6 mg
Sodium 200.6 mg
Potassium 313.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate 29.6 g
Dietary Fiber 2.9 g
Sugars 2.4 g
Protein 19.1 g

Sebidian

I swear by Dreamfield's pastas. Not "low-calorie" by definition, but they are high in fiber, and taste just like the regular stuff.