Steamed, grilled, or sautéed shrimp is another delicious choice to top off your noodles.Įven meatballs can be a healthy pasta topper when made with lean ground chicken or turkey. Skinless chicken (grilled, baked, or sautéed) instantly turns pasta into a filling main course. Now that you've got pasta and fresh vegetables covered, it's time to add lean protein. You can lightly sauté or steam vegetables that have been cut into chunks or strips, and then toss them in after you cook pasta or add them to homemade sauce. Start with a healthy base of whole-grain pasta, and then pile on veggies like spinach, onions, peppers, squash, zucchini, eggplant, peas, mushrooms, and broccoli. You can enjoy flour-based pasta while keeping calories in check (and packing in nutrition) by using vegetables to increase the volume of your meal. Just can't give up your pasta noodles? That's okay. Zucchini, carrots, parsnips, and butternut squash all work well in pasta dishes. Using a spiralizer or veggie peeler, cut vegetables into "noodles," sauté for a few minutes, and top with the sauce of your choice. One way to enjoy a larger helping of your favorite pasta dishes - without the calorie overload - is to swap flour-based pasta for veggie noodles. A big, hearty bowl can add up to hundreds of calories, so be sure to determine the right portion size for your daily calorie allotment, and serve accordingly. Uncooked pasta has about 100 calories per ounce this equals about ½ cup when cooked. And remember that even though whole-grain pasta is healthier, you still need to watch your portion sizes. Because of this, whole-grain pasta is digested more slowly, which helps to maintain a steady level of glucose in the blood and keeps you feeling fuller longer.Īlways check the ingredients list when you're buying pasta, and look for whole-wheat flour listed as the first ingredient. Whole-wheat or whole-grain pasta includes the nutritious layers of the grain that add heart-healthy fiber to your dish (these grains have been removed from regular white pasta). Pasta is naturally low in fat and high in carbohydrates. The one key factor to remember is that you should choose pasta made from whole grains. Let's start with the basics: the pasta itself. The key is to choose the most wholesome ingredients - and employing a few of the following tricks can help you lower calories and fat without losing any of the flavor! 1. The good news is that if you're following a healthy diet to begin with, then spaghetti and meatballs, penne primavera, and even lasagna can all be healthy options to add to your dinner rotation. And while the 23,000 study participants who ate pasta regularly were more likely to have a healthy body weight, they also followed a healthy Mediterranean diet. But you don't have to ban pasta entirely or even relegate it to "cheat meal" status in fact, an Italian study published in July 2016 in Nutrition & Diabetes has found that eating pasta is associated with a reduced likelihood of obesity.īut before you start piling on the pasta, remember that the portions Italians eat are much smaller than what's seen on a dinner plate in the United States. Whether you're trying to lose weight or just eat healthfully, pasta tends to be seen as off-limits.
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