As a girl who has been watching her figure the better part of her life, I have learned quite a few tricks for getting around pesky, unneeded calories without giving up my favorite foods and flavor. One thing I decided to get rid of for good is noodles. I know they are a mainstay of every pasta dish. But to me, they are flavorless fillers that just make me bloated and miserable after they digest. Not to mention a mere 2 ounces pack a 200 calorie punch and most people consume twice that unknowingly! A noodle is nothing more than a processed wheat product that takes on the FLAVOR of whatever you put on it –that’s where all the taste is! So over the years I have learned to alter my recipes and cut down my calorie intake at least a third. Since this is something I get asked about quite a bit, AND I made lasagna last night, here are a few of my quick and easy Italian go-to’s.
-When making spaghetti, sub spaghetti squash. One whole cup of cooked spaghetti squash only has around 42 calories and 10 carbs! There are several ways of cooking a spaghetti squash, but the easiest way I’ve found of doing it is by poking it all over with a metal skewer and roasting it on a cookie sheet on 375 until it’s fork tender. For god’s sake, PLEASE REMEMBER TO POKE IT OR IT WILL EXPLODE!! After it’s cooled enough that I can touch it, I just slice it down the middle, remove the seeds and then, with the tines of a fork, start scraping up the “noodles.” It’s just as easy as boiling traditional spaghetti! Once you top it with your favorite yummy spaghetti sauce, you’re guaranteed to not miss a thing!
-In place of fettuccine style noodles, I will often julienne a zucchini and steam it for just a few minutes on the stove top with a bit of my house spice–salt, pepper and garlic powder. Just don’t let it go too long or they will get mushy and disintegrate! They make tools to create pasta out of veggies, but I simply use a vegetable peeler. It’s whatever you prefer! Oh and did I mention, one medium zucchini only has 33 calories?!
-Finally, my favorite Italian noodle-less meal, AND what I made for dinner last night–Lasagna with eggplant noodles! So good you won’t even realize there isn’t a starch! Because this is one of my favorite meals, I’ll just give you my entire recipe. But please, be creative! Play around with flavors! What works for me might not be your cup of tea and that’s ok!
Appalachian Barbie Lasagna
- 1/2 lb ground sirloin
- 1/2 mild Italian sausage
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 1/2 bell pepper, diced
- 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 jar spaghetti sauce
- 1/2 cup of water
- 2 15oz containers of small curd cottage cheese
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella (divided)
- 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese (divided)
- 2 eggs
- 2 eggplants, sliced thinly to 1/4″ thickness
- spices- salt, pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning
Begin by pre-heating your oven to 400 degrees and letting your sauce pan heat up with around a teaspoon of olive oil while you’re dicing and mincing your veggies. To sauce pan, add meats, peppers, onions and garlic cloves. Cook over medium heat, crumbling meat until it is cooked through and no longer pink. While this is cooking, begin slicing your eggplants lengthwise to no more than 1/4″ thickness. Place them on cookie sheets, drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and italian seasoning and pop them in the oven to roast. You don’t want to over cook these, as they will disintegrate pretty easily. So around 5 minutes should do the trick but keep an eye on them. You just want them to be pliable!
After your meat mixture is cooked, add spices to taste, 1 jar of pasta sauce and 1/2 cup of water. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer while you’re preparing your cheese mixture.
In a medium bowl, combine 2 eggs, lightly beaten, cottage cheese, 1 cup of mozzarella and 1/4 cup of parmesan. Add 1tsp of italian seasoning and stir together. Now it’s time to build your lasagna!
Begin by spooning about a 1/2 cup of sauce mixture onto bottom of 8×8″ pan. Next, layer eggplant “noodles,” covering bottom. Spoon half of cheese mixture on top of “noodles.” Repeat sauce, “noodles”, cheese. Add one more layer of “noodles,” top with sauce and cover with the 1 cup of shredded mozzarella and 1/4 cup of parmesan you reserved from earlier. Lower oven to 365, wrap lasagna tightly in foil and let it cook for about 45 minutes. If you would like, sometimes I will let it cook uncovered the last 5-10 minutes so the cheese gets a nice browning on top. Make sure to let your lasagna set for around 20 minutes before serving. This will help keep it from falling apart when you cut it. And you won’t burn your mouth like a fat kid!
Because of my honey’s intense weight training, he can carbo-load with no worries. So last night I made a full size regular lasagna for him and a little mini eggplant lasagna for me. It worked out perfectly and we both have leftovers!
I hope this article inspires you to try a few noodle-less dishes! The only difference I can tell is that the dishes are a bit wetter because there isn’t any bread to soak up all the juice. Let me know what you think!
Appalachian Barbie 
