Help with recipe

amyhoss

I made this recipe and I love it. I feel like it is a pretty healthy, well rounded meal that I could eat everyday for lunch. My problem is that it is a bit high in calories for lunch considering I only get 1200 calories per day. I have the serving size at 1.5 cups. It doesn't seem like a whole lot so I wouldn't want to decrease the portion size. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can decrease the calories in this meal? Obviously, I could put less pasta in it, but it seems like that would just make a smaller portion and not fill me up enough.

Sausage Broccoli Simmer

Serves 7 people

Ingredients
Broccoli Steamed - Broccoli Steamed (Plain), 4 Cup Cal: 124 Carb: 18 Fat: 0 Protein: 10 Fiber: 12 Sodium: 0
Red Onion - Raw, 0.5 Whole Small Cal: 15 Carb: 4 Fat: 0 Protein: 1 Fiber: 1 Sodium: 1
Spices - Basil, dried, 1 tsp, leaves Cal: 2 Carb: 0 Fat: 0 Protein: 0 Fiber: 0 Sodium: 0
Spices - Oregano, dried, 1 tsp, leaves Cal: 3 Carb: 1 Fat: 0 Protein: 0 Fiber: 0 Sodium: 0
Sugar - Granulated, White (1 Teaspoon), 1 teaspoon Cal: 15 Carb: 4 Fat: 0 Protein: 0 Fiber: 0 Sodium: 0
Meat - Butterball - Everyday Turkey Smoked Sausage, 1 container (14 oz.s ea.) Cal: 700 Carb: 28 Fat: 42 Protein: 56 Fiber: 0 Sodium: 4,270
Hannaford Whole Wheat Pasta-Penne Rigate - Pasta, 1 container (6 cups ea.) Cal: 1,680 Carb: 328 Fat: 12 Protein: 56 Fiber: 40 Soduim: 0
Hannaford - Diced Tomatoes, 1 container (3 1/2 cup (121g) ea.) Cal: 175 Carb: 35 Fat: 0 Protein: 7 Fiber: 7 Soduim: 1,540

Total: Cal: 2714 Carb: 418 Fat: 54 Protein: 130 Fiber: 60 Sodium: 5811
Per Serving (1.5cup) : Cal: 388 Carb: 60 Fat: 8 Protein: 19 Fiber: 9 Sodium: 830

melsinct

Pasta and the smoked sausage are your two main calorie drivers. Pasta is what it is, so if you don't want to reduce it then the sausage is where you can change things up. Look at other brands of turkey smoked sausage or light kielbasa or turkey kielbasa (they all have similar flavor anyway) and see if another brand has less calories. Alternatively, you can use half of the meat called for and cut it into half the size the recipe calls for. This way you get the flavor with half of the meat calories. One other idea to stretch the meal is to bulk it up with more vegetables and increase the serving size to 8 or 9.

Lynn_babcock

You could try diluting the sausage with ground/chopped turkey. Increase your % of vegetables.

alaskaang

The first thing that I see is the sausage - try to find another brand with few calories and less sodium or replace some/all with heavily spiced lean ground turkey.

Add cauliflower in place of some/all of the pasta

Add chicken broth and turn into soup so that you can reduce the portion size of the mixture yet still have a full meal.

amyhoss

Thanks! I like the idea of adding more vegetables; specifically cauliflower. And chopping the sausage is a good idea too; I just sliced it before.