Today I’ve got a quick way for you to save over 360 calories in one of your favorite meals. Are you a pasta lover? Who isn’t these days. With the high population around Ramsey being Italian, there are more than a good share of pasta eaters around.
An average cup of pasta contains around 400 calories. The average pasta meal at any food chain restaurant is over 1000 calories. That probably means around 2+ cups of pasta, and then sauce. Think about that the next you visit one of Ramseys restaurants: Olive Garden, Fridays, Chilis, or Macaroni Grill on Rt 17.
Each plate contains 1 cup.
Last night I decided to give something a try that I’ve heard good things about. You’ve probably seen from the headline what it is: spaghetti squash. Inside I’ve got a good video about cooking, and my own take on this dish.
First thing I did was visit Shoprite at Interstate Plaza to pick up sqaush. I have never even looked for these vegetables, so I didn’t know what to expect. However, they are called exactly what I wanted to use them for: spaghetti squash.
So I grabbed two of these, because I didnt know how much pasta they would yield. Each one is probably around 3-4 pounds. When I wanted to cook them, I searched the web to find tips and came across this video, which does a good explanation and visual demonstration.
When I decided to cook these, I found the cooking time to be longer than stated in the video. What happened was I put one squash into the microwave for about 15 minutes. I then thought it might be done so I cut it in half to check. It wasn’t. So I cleaned out the center as best I could and then put the two halves back into the microwave side by side.
After about 10 more minutes I could they were pretty close to done, not to mention the family was starting to get really hungry. So I cleaned out one side completely using just a fork as stated in the video. The other side wasn’t completely cooked, so I probably got 2/3 of the inside out. Even so, I still got a whole lot of “pasta” from this one squash.
How did it taste? Great! It doesn’t taste the same as traditional pasta, its a little sweeter. However I put sauce, red pepper, and parmesan cheese on it like normal spaghetti and didn’t notice much difference. I will say that I ate two platefuls and was very full. But the best part is the difference in calories.
If I had eaten two platefuls of standard pasta, I would easily consumed over 1200 calories in pasta alone. But because it was squash (42 calories per cup) I consumed somewhere around 130 calories. Thats a whopping 1100 calorie difference! Since 3500 calories equal a pound, I saved myself nearly 1/3 of a pound by switching up to squash vs. pasta.
Recommendation: Definitely give this a try. It is super easy to just microwave the squash and then it just scoops out like you see in the video. Just be sure to cook thorough enough, when the outer skin starts to get soft.
After you try it, or before you do, leave a comment and let me know what you think.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This sounds like a great alternative to pasta. My family (being Italian) are always eating pasta and it shows for my husband and me (yikes!). We will definitely give this a try and see how it works out because we certainly need to reduce our calories.
Thanks for this tip.
I need to try this. heard it’s really good.