Noodles and Rice

I love these!

I doubt there is anything that tastes the same - but you could experiment with alternatives like cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles

I use cauliflower rice sometimes. And I don’t think there’s a rule that you can only eat 1/2 a cup of pasta. Unless that’s a keto thing. I’m not doing low carb, just calories. You can eat more is if you build it into your calories.

What about pastas made from beans? Do they count? I like pasta made from garbanzo beans cause it tastes better, is more filling, more satisfying, not because it’s healthier, so I’m not sure if it is?

sandit60 wrote: »

I have a problem with starch, mainly pasta and rice. I know not to eat more than 1/2 cup per serving but it doesn't seem like much. Is there anything anyone else eats that tastes close to these two t hings? Thanks.

Why only eat half a cup? Eat as much as you like, weight it dry by grams, log it, log the other things you eat with it. Done.

VegjoyP wrote: »

First of all shiritaki- Miracle noodle, tofu noodles, etc. Have been around for decades. In Asian culinary they use yam flour, glucomannan and tofu shiritaki. I ( personally) am in maitenance and have maintained since 2010. I use them in my life, not " dieting". Also personally I do not enjoy rice or pasta in small amounts and I don't want to base my calories on rice. It leaves me starving. However for some it can work.

Zucchini noodles, miracle noodles, veggie spirals etc can also be used WITH rice, pasta, etc. to volumize the dish. Adding mixed vegetables also helps maximize the meal.

Glucomannan, the "active ingredient" as it were in the miracle noodle products, is basically cellulose. There's a lot of weird diet *kitten* that's "been around for decades," that doesn't make it food. Again, if you like it, you're an adult and you can choose to eat indigestible fiber to artificially fill your stomach if you want to, that's your choice.

@hipari Your math checks out. For US$40, you can buy a ludicrous amount of real rice, like 150kg - enough to have a generous portion of it at every meal for a year or two. That $40 will get you ten meals' worth of ready-to-eat Miracle Rice. It looks like they do also sell it dry but it's similarly expensive - another $40 for 80 oz dry Miracle Rice. 80 oz is a bit less than 3kg.

I don't think that anyone should be making the argument that alternative products are less costly than staples. It would be highly unlikely for this to be the case as most "diet" products cost more--point me to the exceptions to the rule if any exist!

So I find the pricing argument spurious.

if finances are hurting it would be a silly waste of your money budget to be trying to fit in $3.50 bags of fake rice worth 50 Calories instead of using your $3.50 towards a bag of flour, or if slightly better off, towards a lb of potatoes.

Have you checked out the price of lentils or chickpeas cooked with some rice and oil? What's the point of considering anything else if that would be the maximum calories per dollar you can get (and it would also give you all the amino-acids you need)? So price is A consideration.. but probably not THE major one when someone is considering these products.

Price aside, it also makes no sense to me that we are discussing whether most low calorie products (artificial sweeteners, low cal dressings, cellulose based imitation rice) are more nutritious, i.e. dense with nutrients as compared to the food they are replacing!

More nutrient dense tends to imply less air and less non-digestible material thus containing more nutrients in a given quantity... which is the exact opposite of what you're trying to accomplish when you $pend on 0 Cal stuff!

So yes: they're $pendy and they are nutritiously void. But they occupy space. And they're edible. That's the point!

So on to our good friend the konjac root.

I discovered shiritaki noodles while losing weight going back almost 5 years now. Do I use them every day? No. far from it. Do I still have a bag or two in the fridge that I occasionally dump into a lower calorie higher volume meal? You bet ya!

And I've actually found the rice one better for the type of food I eat as I tend to dump it into soups instead of regular rice to reduce the caloric load.

At the end of the day I, personally, would much rather spend my calories on ice cream and chocolate than on rice which I consider to be a sauce holder, thickener, or portion bulking agent (such honest words when you then consider the calories)... but that's me! (and by the way, for the calories... I am boiled or oven roasted baby potatoes all the way!)

This year, while maintaining, not while trying to lose or gain, I also started using cauliflower rice. Both by itself, mixed 50-50 with rice, and, I admit wastefully when it comes to cost, mashed with boiled potatoes! I actually probably like it better (than other alternative products) and the big frozen bag at Costco is probably more cost effective than most even more over-priced alternatives.

And spaghetti mixed with beetroot spirals/noodles (they add a sweetness and color but taste great combined with tomato sauce especially if you don't add any sugar to the sauce while making it). A bit monochromatic.. but tasty!

All these "options" increase volume for small calorie hits while yes, changing the taste a bit. The taste change can be viewed as good or bad depending on your own desires and expectations.

As mentioned above, if taken on their own merits a lot of these are more than fine!

If you have the expectation that you will end up consuming something that is indistinguishable from eating regular rice or pasta... you will end up disappointed.

But, all these products CAN be part of the experimentation that takes place in terms of the ongoing food management choices we get to make.

We can have anything we want at any point of time that we want... but we probably can't have everything we want, at any quantity, all the time.... right?

--most shiritake products I've tried have a faint "fishy" tinge which makes them, for me, more "natural" to served either with seafood or with a strong/spicy sauce. Think Asian noodle stir fry as opposed to bolognaise.

I love spaghetti squash in place of noodles.

I do not EVER feel any satisfaction from a half cup to cup of rice or pasta, and never feel like it's worth it. Shiritaki is used in Asian cuisine as a staple. I do not use it daily either and the fact that it's 3 a bag is just like calories- if it fits in your budget and enjoy it why not? It works for me fabulously.