any low cal spaghetti recipes?

anyone have a low cal spaghetti recipe they can share? i love spaghetti, and have not been able to have thus far.
i think my problem is that i like beef if the sauce, but if i trade that for ground trukey iam sure that could cut it down. but if anyone has any other tips or a recipe i would love to hear about they.
i miss spaghetti!

thank you  :-)

subsitute the actual noodle for spaghetti squash. it is a vegetable you should be able to find in your grocery store. it gives instructions how to prepare on a sticker that should be on the fruit. no idea on sauces. normally i add some of hunts no salt added diced tomatoes to it.

The lowest I could come up with is thin spaghetti with Paul Newman's marinera sauce and 3 Honeysuckle turkey meatballs... It's still high but doable if you have a low breakfast/ lunch. I think it was like 700 cals?? have to look it up again

 

 

a one cup (cooked) serving pasta (that's 2 oz dry), is around 200 calories.  If you make some steamed vegetables to mix with it, it makes a nice big bowl full.  Plain marinara sauce is the lowest in calories, but there are many other alternatives that don't involve tomato, or cream for that matter.

An easy one is a simple saute.  Use 1 tablespoon of olive oil (125 calories) and saute finely chopped onions, peppers and garlic until soft.  Add a ladle of the salted pasta water.  When the pasta is cooked, add it to the saute pan and toss, cooking a little to let it absorb the flavors.   Finish with some fresh parsley and a half an ounce of grated cheese.

That comes to about 450 to 500 calories.  You can cut it back by sauteing in just a little water or broth instead of the olive oil.

Some vegetables that make good sauce - mushrooms, grated zucchini, grated carrot, chopped eggplant, halved cherry tomatoes - use your imagination!

Comparing restaurant spaghetti, the lowest cals I see are 420 for Fazoli's (marinara sauce) and 470 for Spaghetti Factory (rich meat sauce).  Both are about a 16 oz serving, spaghetti and sauce.  If you start with marinara, add a minimal amount of meat (bacon, ham, sausage, whatever), and keep the portion down to 2 cups cooked, you should have a meat spaghetti meal in the 400-500 calorie range.

My dad used to make a really great recipe he called summer spaghetti. It was very light even though a bit higher in calories than most of us here would like to have. I would love ideas on how to lighen it up. You take 1 head cauliflower florets, 1 broccoli florets, and 1/4 diced onion and sautee in 2 Tbsp. olive oil. He used to always put in 1 package summer sausage cut into quarter sized pieces, then cut in fourths as well. Boil 1 package spaghettii as directed, cook to al dente, then toss with sauteed sausage, veggies, 1 palm full of Italian seasonings ( I always added a bit more Oregano), and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Of course this makes a tremendous amount (enough for a family) but it was lighter than a traditional meat and tomato sauce and it hit most food groups in one serving. I suppose a turkey sausage could substitute. Any other ideas to lighten it? If you try it how it is I guarantee you'll love it if you like all that stuff!

As siad above, use turkey mince or rinse and drain the beef mince. Add ots of veggies so you need less pasta and mince. Sometimes i just like a salad with sapgetti sauce on it! But if you need the strands you can use thin slices of veggies like carrots or zuchinni, mixed in with pasta,

You could try using cabbage as a "noodle" (hardly any calories). Its not quite the same... but the main issue with noodles is they ALL have higher calories (because of the flour, not really a fat issue or anything like that...just flour items can really add up in calories)

Ummm... spaghetti squash is yummy!!! I love this time of year because it is really easy to find. I like the squash better than noodles. Also you can make your own marinara sauce. My husband LOVES food, so I've gotten really good at making low calorie substitutes for his favorite foods. Another good sub. is black beans instead of beef in tacos (or in my case taco salad.)

Yeah, I make spaghetti with squash and I make my own sauce by using canned tomato sauce and adding all the spices myself minus the sugar cause that's where all the calories come in.  Thin I mix in lean beef, turkey, or even diced chicken.  Even my kids like it.

Here's a sauce we love, don't know the cal count, but since it's all veggie, it's got to be pretty low.  Put over your favorite pasta or other vegetables. 

1/2 bag frozen mixed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots.

Can(s) diced tomatoes or tomato sauce if you don't like chunks.

Steam the broc mix in a little water in the microwave, when soft run through food processor to 'mince'.  Stir together with tomato product and let cook for as many hours on low as you can.  No need for salt, Johnny's seasoning, garlic, onion...anything.  It all cooks down and has the most intense flavor.   Great way to sneak a couple veg past the kids too!  ;-)

Have you ever tried Tofu Shiritaki noodles?  They're really good.  One bag is 40 calories!  Boil them like you would normal noodles for about 5-8 minutes and they're great.  For sauce I just use an organic sauce from the store.  1/2 cup is 40 calories, and you really don't need that much.

Saw your post earlier today erinspepito , so i went down to the store on the way home and picked up some of those noodles (was tucked away in a little corner...but i found it!). They are GREAT! A huge bowl of the noodles was only about 100 calories.... i was amazed.

They didnt have a strange taste or anything, they acted and tasted like normal noodles (though, they were a little different, not in a bad way...and well worth it for the HUGE reduction in calories!).

Im a big fan of the noodles now, just need to start figuring up some good ways to use them (i had pretty much given up on noodles before).

lorik, I had the opposite reaction to shiratake noodles.  I thought they were gelatinous and slimy. I didn't think they "acted" like real noodles and that the difference was bad indeed. 

But if you can stand the texture, go for it. 

I think my Italian heritage is influencing my opinion of this food!

I'd been hearing about the shirataki noodles for about a year (yep, hungry girl), but couldn't find them -- finally our commissary started carrying them.

Personnally, not bad -- I made a broccoli, chicken alfredo with laughing cow -- the whole thing (including the chicken) was under 150 cals -- and it was good.

But -- having said that, I think I still prefer the real noodles.  Ronzini Smart Pasta has 6g fiber and 6g protein (still 180cals/2oz) -- and can work in anything.  And since I started measuring my pasta -- I found that 2oz (1cup cooked) is actually a lot of pasta.

Portabello mushrooms can also mimic the texture of ground beef -- I usually use ground turkey breast and lots of mushrooms

clairelaine- did you rinse and par-boil them first?

are they shirtaki noodles with the regular tofu in the grocery store??? I cant find them either.

I rinsed and boiled first.  It's the texture I don't like.

I found them in the dairy aisle at Whole Foods Market and they were quite inexpensive.  I was really sorry I didn't like them, because they are a wonderful solution to the high cal pasta problem.

I found mine back in the health food area of the store (there was tofu, but there was also tofu in another area of the store close to produce).

Yea, the texture is a little different then normal noodles ... but i think you can get past that with different ways of cooking it. Like maybe bake it into a dish with egg/milk/spices and other chopped veggies into a knd of casserole. The noodle would act like a nice base to fill it out ...and the texture wouldnt be as big of a concern because there is so much other things going on (like the egg and veggies holding everything together).

Hmm, yea, i need to play around with it more. But the huge reduction in calories is so nice (i can see some really nice 100-200 calorie *and filling!* dishes being made with the noodles).

Hi,

Use whole eat pasta, you have to cook it a little longer but it digests slowere and makes you feel satisfied longer. Not to mention is is a better carb then the white pasta. Ground turkey or chicken os a great substitute for beef. Don;t think too much about calories. Just make sure you are truly hungry when you eat. Stomach hunger not head hunger. Then eat slowly savouring every bite and stop eating when you are satisfied not full. If you do this you will loose weight. Not only will you loose weight, you will not feel like you are on a diet or feel deprived.

Also; don't make too much. Sometimes if we make too much of a favorite food we tend to want to go back tothe leftovers. Make a small amount.

Hope this helps

Hmmm, just how lo-cal do you want to go? I routinely have 2 oz pasta with marinara sauce and 3 meatballs, olives, a little parm, and a side of broccoli and that's just 300 cals.

For me the trick is serving it in a small bowl, instead of on a plate... which makes the serving look too puny. :-)

There's all sorts of dishes I make with spaghetti, but I was assuming you meant the traditional with tomato sauce. I find you can do a lot and get very creative (feta, pine nuts, broccoli, basil, crushed red pepper is a favorite, as is chicken sausage, canned diced tomatoes, spinach or kale, olives and basil). Just need to keep the spaghetti portion at 2 oz. (i.e, one serving).