From Dirty to Clean... Pasta and Meatballs

Spaghetti squash with 99% lean turkey meatballs and broccoli rabe.

I can remember a few short years ago when a nice Friday or Saturday night meal consisted of a large plate of pasta covered with meatballs and sauce. 

Now that Ru and I are both off season and it's getting cold, we definitely want more stick to your stomach type meals... But not to your Glutes!  

You can clean your pasta up a bit by going whole wheat or whole grain to make it more complex (less of an insulin spike). That brings the calorie count from 220 a cup down to 174. (Carbs go from 43 grams to 37). 

But Ru and I decided to go one further. By swopping out our pasta completely with spaghetti squash we brought the calories and carbs way down. Spaghetti squash is just 31 calories a cup with only 7 grams of carbs!  You can't beat that!

To further clean up our weekend eats act, I made 99% lean turkey meatballs, using oatbran and an egg white to hold them together (verses breadcrumbs and a whole egg), then they were baked. 

It really doesn't take much to clean up your act.  With just a few minor adjustments, you can go from being dirty boys and girls to little angels too. ;)