spaghetti

i love spaghetti but i know its not that good for you. need some tips on how to make it a little better for me so i can eat it without feeling like i should do some sit-ups.

As he reads the Nutrition facts from a box of Catelli whole wheat spaghetti. There is step one. The next thing to try is adding chicken or turkey to your sauce instead of ground beef.

I'm sure there are receipes out there. Good luck!! :drinker:

Add more veggies to the sauce, make the meat secondary!!! You can also serve the red sauce on top of spaghetti squash, it's delicious... Good luck, and stay STRONG!!!!!:happy:

My husband loves meat. I hate ground meat.
I love veggies. My hubby hates veggies.

Our compromise is a spaghetti sauce that contains mushrooms and occasionally garlic. :laugh: Since there's next to nothing in our sauce, it's a really low cal meal for us, even with regular ol' pasta. We do use the more flavorful sauces, like Classico's Cabernet or a Vodka Sauce, so it's not just plain tomato-tastin'.

You could try Morningstar Veggie Crumbles. We call it "fakey-meat".

Here is my recipe for meat sauce...hope it helps. Just a note...I never measure anything, so taste as you go to adjust seasoning!
1 lb lean ground turkey
2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
2 6 oz cans tomato paste
1 onion, small dice
1 green pepper, small dice
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
oregano
basil
Italian seasoning
garlic powder
pinch of sugar
fresh grated parmesan cheese (about 1 T, plus more for serving)

In a large pot, brown meat and drain in colander, running very hot water over the meat to get all fat out that you can. Pour a little olive oil into pot, enough to thinly coat the bottom, and add onion, pepper and garlic. Cook over med-low heat until soft and onions begin to turn translucent. Add turkey back to pot and cook together for a few minutes. Add tomato sauce and paste, plus fill each can with water and add to pot. Stir to combine, then add spices, (Start with 1-2 tsp each of oregano, basil and Italian seasoning and about 1/2 tsp garlic powder) sugar and cheese. Stir sauce and leave to simmer for up to 3 hours. After an hour, taste and adjust seasoning. Can add salt and pepper if needed, and if desired, a bit of red pepper.
You can also add some finely grated carrot or yellow squash puree to up the veggie quota without changing the taste of the sauce.

I'm sorry I don't have the nutrition info on this...it makes a HUGE batch and I am not sure how many servings I can get out of it. Ususally my 2 kids and I can eat off of it for 2 meals, have some left over to toss with some low fat ricotta and penne, then top with low fat mozzarella and bake, then still some left to freeze! (Just some ideas for the leftovers )
I either serve it with a whole wheat/grain pasta, Barilla makes a good one, or if you are watching your carbs, Dreamfield is really good. It has something like 5 digestible carbs per serving. I have seen a lot of suggestions on this site for spaghetti squash...haven't tried that yet.
Sorry this is so long! I am going to shut up now and sit here craving spaghetti for the day. :happy:

I am bumping this...I analyzed the recipe I gave above. I estimated it at 10, 1 cup servings of sauce. It has 143 calories and 4.6 g of fat per serving. The rest of the nutritional info is in the database under "AK's homemade spaghetti (meat sauce)" Hope this helps! This recipe takes awhile to make, one thing you can do is cook the ground turkey and veggies on the stove, then combine everything in a crockpot, give it a stir and let it cook on low for the day while you are out of the house.

I use lots of veggies and canned clams in my sauce instead of hamburger, as well as multi grain pasta. Very lowfat and good for you, make sure you measure your pasta though.