Pasta Recipes Please!

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riska24
riska24 Posts: 3
in Recipes
I love fettucine, spaghetti, lasagna, and all that good stuff...Unfortunately my hips do not! Does anyone have any healthy recipes involving pasta or healthy alternatives to pasta? Even healthier sauces (alfredo, etc.) would help bring down the calorie count on my favorite meals. Thank you! =)

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  • IzzyBooNZ1
    IzzyBooNZ1 Posts: 1,289 Member
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    bumping cos I also want to know ! YUM pasta.
  • kimberlyAjohnson
    kimberlyAjohnson Posts: 136 Member
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    I prefer to use quinoa pastas or egg noodles. They're better for you, although the calories are still pretty high!
  • bettyboop573
    bettyboop573 Posts: 610 Member
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    i had tried a lasagne rollup recipe awhile back that was pretty yummy....I 'll see if i can dig it out....great when you want the lasagne but cuts the noodles back a bit :)
  • yeabby
    yeabby Posts: 643 Member
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    Have you tried Spaghetti Squash in lieu of pasta?
  • sarahliftsUP
    sarahliftsUP Posts: 752 Member
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    Spaghetti squash! Use it in place of pasta -- cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and bake for about 40 minutes at 325ºF. With a fork, scrape the contents and it forms little ''noodles." It's not pasta, but it's different, good, and filling. Just top it off with your regular spaghetti sauce.
  • ai965
    ai965 Posts: 118
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    Mixed Pasta Broccoli Salad

    Serves 10

    Ingredients:
    1 cup whole grain pasta
    1 1/3 cup plain elbow macaroni
    1 1/2 cup bow-tie pasta
    10 tablespoons Mario sliced salad (with minced pimiento strips)
    1 small head of broccoli
    1/4 teaspoon salt

    Directions:
    1. Boil a large pot of water and a small pot of water filled 3/4 of the way full.
    2. Add the salt to the large pot of boiling water.
    3. Separate the florets from the stem of the broccoli and boil in the small pot of water for 5 minutes, then strain.
    4. Add the pasta to the large pot of boiling water, and cook according to directions on the package. Throw in the pastas one by one if there is a conflict in the cooking times, then strain when desired tenderness is reached.
    5. Place cooked pasta and cooked broccoli in a large bowl.
    6. Add the sliced salad to the bowl.
    7. Stir together the ingredients in the bowl.
    8. OPTIONAL: Chill in the fridge for at least one hour and up to 24 hours before serving.

    Invented it myself :) Delicious! 145 calories 27 g carbs 2 g fat per serving
  • IzzyBooNZ1
    IzzyBooNZ1 Posts: 1,289 Member
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    is squash mentioned below AKA butternut squash??
  • andrea464
    andrea464 Posts: 238 Member
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    Cook some bowtie pasta and let it cool. Add chicken, strawberries (oranges, craisins- fruits), nuts, and add to some spinach. Add a tablespoon or so of asian dressing (I like Annie's organic). Enjoy!
    It's very filling, but also pretty good for you.
  • literaryshots
    literaryshots Posts: 66 Member
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    1 lb pasta of your choice, cooked
    1/3 cup olive oil
    1/3 cup parmesan
    1/3 cup dried basil
    1 tsp garlic powder
    1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
    Salt and Pepper to taste
    Combine oil, cheese, basil, garlic powder and tomatoes while the pasta cooks. Add a bit of pasta water and the drained pasta. Toss and serve warm or room temp.

    I often add grille chicken and chopped spinach for a complete (and cheap) meal.
  • keiko
    keiko Posts: 2,919 Member
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    I like to grill chicken, peppers (red, yellow, green), onion, zucchini, mushrooms. I mix the veggies with some EVOO, salt, pepper, garlic, herbs, my favorite is rosemary. I make lots so that we can eat it with salad the first night. Then I take the left over chicken/veggies and add a can of tomatoes, 1/4 cup red wine, basil & oregano for a nice chicken cacciatore and serve over fettucine. I love pasta and for me it's all about eating the correct serving size. I had to learn that a bowl is not a serving, especially the bowl I was using. Surprisely a correct serving is filling when I pair it with a nice salad.
  • fmprincess
    fmprincess Posts: 2
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    Spaghetti squash instead of pasta is a great alternative! You can actually do so many things with spaghetti squash. I often put some cinnamon and splenda on it with a few sprays of I can't believe its not butter. Its soooo good.

    Also, Miracle noodles have NO calories, fat, absolutely nothing. They are made from Konjac root fiber. You must rinse them a few times in cold water. Then you will cook them and rinse them again to get rid of the smell. Yes they are stinky, but it is a dieters dream.

    If you must use pasta. Go for the whole wheat and use half of what you normally would and load up on the veggies in the dish. You will still get your pasta but much less calories.

    Dave Lieberman and Rocco Disperito have healthy swaps in their new cookbooks. Daves is the 10 things you need to eat. Roccos is Now eat this!

    So a guilt free alfredo sauce from Dave is...
    1/2 head cauliflower, cored removed and broken into small florets
    2 tbsp olive oil
    2 shallots, minced
    1/2 cup chicken stock
    1 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
    Salt and black pepper to taste

    Preparation
    Steam the cauliflower for 20 minutes until very soft. In a small sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat and cook the shallots until soft and translucent, stirring often, for about 10 minutes. Add the chicken stock and cook for 5 minutes longer. Set aside to cool.
    In a large blender, combine the cooked cauliflower and the shallot-chicken stock mixture and purée until silky smooth. Pour the puree into the sauce pan and heat over medium heat until steaming. Remove from the heat, toss in the spaghetti squash or cooked pasta and add the grated parmesan cheese.
    Season to taste with salt and pepper and divide between 2 serving bowls. Top with more parmesan cheese. Makes 2 servings.

    You also need to be careful with the sugar in tomato sauce. You will want to buy a low sugar/low sodium tomato sauce. Or you can always make your own so you know what is going in it.

    The miracle noodles and the low sugar tomato sauce you can purchase from netrition.com. I love this website. You can find all sorts of healthy swaps and their shipping is cheap!


    Hungry girl is another website you could go to. She has healthy swaps and you can sign up for her daily newsletter.

    I hope this helps!
  • PJilly
    PJilly Posts: 21,710 Member
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    I recently got Rocco DiSpirito's cookbook, "Now Eat This!" It has a bunch of pasta recipes. We've tried three and loved two of them (fettuccine Alfredo and pasta carbonara). There are more we want to test. The pasta carbonara was especially tasty. We fixed it just yesterday and are going to fix it again tomorrow. :bigsmile:
  • fmprincess
    fmprincess Posts: 2
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    Also when doing lasagna. Substitute the noodles with eggplant or zucchini. Something you can layer. And buy a whole milk and skim milk ricotta. This will bring the calorie count down!
  • fridayjustleft04
    fridayjustleft04 Posts: 851 Member
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    I was going to suggest squash, but that's already covered, so..I use whole wheat pasta and add tons of veggies (usually mushrooms, olives, squash and eggplant), and then some pasta sauce. Being a vegetarian who is conscious of her protein intake, I will also often add in soy crumbles (vegetarian version of ground beef) so it's like a meat sauce, but with way less calories and fat. Fills you up more because of all the veggies/fiber from the pasta/protein, and you will eat less actual pasta because there's so much other stuff in there.
  • riska24
    riska24 Posts: 3
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    Thanks everyone! I had heard something about spaghetti squash in the past but have never tried it. Thanks for all of the ideas and recipes so far!! =)
  • bachooka
    bachooka Posts: 719 Member
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    Another recipe that Rocco DeSprito has is a mac and cheese... it is amazing and my whole family loved it!
  • takemeaway10
    takemeaway10 Posts: 75
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    With just about any pasta dish, limit the cheese and omit the cream. Those are the prime sources of calories in pasta dishes. Pack on the veggies within the dish or eat it on the side. Whatever pasta dish you like, there is a healthy version of it. My favorite is spaghetti carbonara. It's nothing but spaghetti, egg, bacon, freshly grated parmesan cheese and pepper; it's simple and delicious. If you have it in a restaurant, they use cream, boosting up the calories. It is heavenly!
  • lisajg123
    lisajg123 Posts: 2 Member
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    One pasta dish i love is fresh linguine with king prawns and scallops with a tomato and chilli sauce, because it is tomato based sauce it is relatively low is calories and the chilli gives it a great kick
  • Laura_beau
    Laura_beau Posts: 1,029 Member
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    The skinnytaste website also has lots of low cal pasta dishes and alternative sauces.

    I find the best way to enjoy a lower calorie pasta meal is to use wholewheat pasta and make your own sauce. Some of my low cal pasta sauces are:

    Puttanesca: Canned or fresh chopped tomatoes with capers, roasted aubergine (Eggplant), chopped black olives, diced onion, crushed garlic cooked down with a pinch of sugar & black pepper.

    Broccoli Pesto- cooked broccoli whizzed up with a little olive oil, crushed garlic, a pinch of parmesan, black pepper & lots of fresh basil.

    Creamy pesto sauce- Melt down 1 tbsp of very low fat cream cheese (I use philadelphia extra light) and add 2 tsp reduced fat pesto.

    spicy Roasted red pepper pasta sauce- Roast 2 large red bell peppers and 1 red onion. Then blend with some chopped garlic, pepper & chilli.

    Dont know the exact calorie count of the above- but they are way better than shop bought ones which usually contain a lot of hidden fat & sodium.

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