Pasta replacements

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inherentst0rm
inherentst0rm Posts: 84 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Any good recommendations for pasta noodle replacements?
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  • inherentst0rm
    inherentst0rm Posts: 84 Member
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    I wanted pasta so bad the other day do I just spent a bit more time doing cardio to earn it. Worked okay but I thought replacing then sometimes would be good too
  • thanos5
    thanos5 Posts: 513 Member
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    i really like spaghetti squash. of course, it's not pasta but it's good with sauce and turkey meatballs.

    if i weren't diabetic i would probably continue eating pasta, as long as i stayed under my calorie goal.
  • Rosiev2014
    Rosiev2014 Posts: 66 Member
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    I love cauliflower rice as a replacement for rice but just can’t find a replacement for pasta!!!! First world problem I know but very sad!!!
  • thebiggestjoe
    thebiggestjoe Posts: 2 Member
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    Moderate you portion size, or have low calorie breakfast and lunch to save enough for dinner.
    I have come to love spaghetti squash, with a great home made sauce and some parmigiana cheese it is yummy.
    Remember the key is calorie deficit not the foods. A guy on instagram ate only fast food for a week to show if you stay in a calorie deficit you will lose weight.
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
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    Most of my pasta dishes fall in the 400 calories per serving. I fill them with lean meat and lots of vegetables. So the serving is quite large. I don't know what your calorie allowance is but you might could fit in 1 1/2 servings. I made Cajun Chicken and pasta a few days ago and it was 385 calories. I served it with vegetables on the side for a total of about 500 calories.

    I will say though you have to practice portion control with pasta and rice. For me it works in part because I only eat two meals and a couple of snacks a day.
  • inherentst0rm
    inherentst0rm Posts: 84 Member
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    jdog022 wrote: »
    inherentst0rm wrote: »
    I wanted pasta so bad the other day do I just spent a bit more time doing cardio to earn it. Worked okay but I thought replacing then sometimes would be good too

    I don’t understand. pasta is like 200 calories. Half cup sauce maybe 70 cals tops. Your having trouble fitting that in?

    I should say I wanted to binge....
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited March 2019
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    Pasta is not really all that calorie dense. Some people here have said that 300 calories of spaghetti is not a plateful. It is. Cook 500 calories of thin spaghetti (5oz. dry) and eat the first half of it. Wait a half hour and see if you still need to binge the other half. Skip the meatballs and olive oil.
  • knightreader
    knightreader Posts: 813 Member
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    the problem is a pasta serving size isn't anything we are used to. too small. i'm not a huge pasta fan so i can get away with zoodles once in a while. also not a huge red sauce fan.
  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,231 Member
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    @inherentst0rm, you like pasta and so do I. Eat and enjoy or as they say in Italy, mangia mangia!

    I eat mine at least once a week and my serving is half a package (8 oz. uncooked) which is 800-900 calories. Lately, I eat mine plain and it fills me up good. Might weigh a lb. or two higher the next morning but it’s merely an outlier that goes away.

    I’ve lost 35 lbs. eating lots of pasta and other high carb foods plus I sit for a living. Eat your pasta and eat some for me.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
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    There's nothing that tastes like pasta other than pasta.

    If you want something noodle shaped to act as a vehicle for sauce, you can use shirataki, spaghetti squash, or spiralized vegetables. None of those taste like pasta, though.

    There are also various high protein pastas that may help you feel fuller/meet your macros more easily than traditional pasta. They taste different from traditional pasta.

    I would recommend just weighing out your portion of pasta, and "stretching" it by adding veggies, low calorie protein, and/or low calorie sauces.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,906 Member
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    Another vote for stretching real pasta by adding veggies. And chewing slowly.
  • ouryve
    ouryve Posts: 572 Member
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    Keep your usual amount of sauce and halve the pasta. If it's too saucy, have some brocolli or spinach leaves on the side to mop it up, or treat it like soup and use a spoon!
  • RachellaJ
    RachellaJ Posts: 58 Member
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    I like a big plate of spaghetti, so I do half zoodles and half pasta. 120 grams of cooked spaghetti is 423 calories and it looks tiny by itself, but with the zoodles added, it really bulks up my portion. I just ate this for dinner, with mushrooms, marinara and cheese and it is so yummy and filling.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,187 Member
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    Chickpea, lentil and pea pastas taste more like pastas than most of the other "substitutes" folks have mentioned, and have materially more protein, so it can be easier to fit them in, depending on nutritional needs.

    I find them to have a little flatter taste than wheat pasta, but a similar texture. With a flavorful sauce, the flatter taste is fine with me. YMMV.

    There are also soy and black bean pastas that are much higher in protein (usually well over 20g for a 2oz (dry weight) serving). These have a less wheat-pasta-like texture, usually more chewy. I personally don't care for them in tomato or cheese sauces, but enjoy them as the noodle component in a pseudo-Asian prep (peanut sauce, chili sauce, stir fry, that sort of thing).

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