Soup is another great food for restoring dietary balance because you can make it filling and healthy and still eat a ton of it. Since last week was too hot for soup around here, I wanted something light and spicy, so I made this pasta dish with sauteed broccoli raab, chickpeas and whole wheat fettucine.
Whole Wheat Pasta with Broccoli Raab and Chickpeas
Serves 2
- Trim and chop up one big bunch of broccoli raab and blanch for 3 minutes in boiling water. Transfer greens from pot to a colander with a slotted spoon and drain. Keep the water boiling, add salt and cook 4 oz. of whole wheat fettucine or linguine.
- Meanwhile, heat 1 tbs. olive oil in a large skillet. Saute 3 fat cloves of garlic, slivered, hot pepper flakes to taste and the drained broccoli raab until stems are tender. Add 1 cup rinsed and drained chickpeas; season with salt and pepper. Add 8 roughly chopped kalamata olives.
- Reserve 1 cup pasta cooking water and drain pasta. Add pasta to skillet and toss. Add about 1/2 cup pasta water to moisten and use more if you like. Squeeze some lemon juice on pasta and check seasoning. Dish into 2 bowls and top each with 2 tbs. grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Makes great leftovers.
When I want to eat really well, I also pay close attention to my portion sizes, even measuring and counting calories. I've sort of had an automatic calorie counter in my head since I was a teenager and, for better or worse, it does help to know just how much you're really eating.
This weekend, we're still eating pretty healthy, and we might make a batch of my carrot-ginger-curry soup, which Mike loved. There was also still plenty of room to include pizza - our favorite Friday night staple - in our healthy eating plan.
So that's how I diet...what are the tricks you use when you want to eat healthy?
12 comments:
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Soup for dinner every night is my new diet method. Doesn't matter what kind of soup, but if I have that as my main course (my only course), I get filled up with something that's mostly water and veggies. Also, trying not to eat anything after 8 pm.
Lydia: yeah, soup is a good one. It's all about volume. There was a clever diet in Good Housekeeping magazine a few months ago where you make a huge batch of vegetable soup and eat as much as you want throughout the day for snacks. Then you doctor it to create new soups for dinner. If I was really trying to drop pounds, I'd probably try it.
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I count my calories. For every recipe I make I figure the calories per serving. It's so easy to make minor adjustments that can save you hundreds of calories.
A simple meal of roasted or steamed vegetables are my ideal after over indulging on the weekends. You can eat a ton of veggies for so few calories.
I love the pasta with broccoli raab. We've been using more raab lately - I love the flavor, and it's another vegetable my husband and I can agree on.
LisaRene: Yeah, it all comes down to calories in vs. calories out. I seem to have encyclopedic knowledge of calorie counts for various foods, so I'm often tallying them in my head whether I want to or not!
Fearless: Broccoli raab is my favorite green vegetable (my husband's too). I like the bitter flavor. It's more of a "nice" vegetable side dish for us because you have to go thru the trouble of blanching it before sauteing, but it is worth it.
Julie,
Your healthy meals look yummy. When I'm making an effort to eat healthier, I definately eat more fish. (I'm not a big soup eater, and it's to hot here most of the year.) Do you cut down on wine?
I usually cut down on starch and keep the wine :)
Great pasta dish! April is soup for dinner for me as May is usually filled with plenty calorific reasons to celebrate my getting older!! Meant to tell you that I made the carrot soup this past weekend and we loved it!
Yum! When I'm trying to recover from overindulging, I usually eat sushi for dinner several nights in a row, or else an Amy's Organic meal with extra veggies thrown in. That, and I usually increase my gym time, because I'd much rather work out more than eat less! It usually works pretty quickly. :-)
I like that you use a lot of mediterranean ingredients in your dishes like kalamatas and capers. They jazz just about anything up--good and good for you! My fave brand for mediterranean ingredients is Mezzetta from Napa Valley. www.mezzetta.com I like some of your sweet ideas, too. Will try them as soon as the diet works!
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