One of my favorite foods is spaghetti. However, I have faithfully stuck to a calorie-deficit diet for roughly 2.5 months now (76 days), and I have refrained from eating spaghetti during that entire timeframe. It wasn’t that I thought spaghetti was impossible to make healthily; it was because I had not taken the time to research how to make a healthier version of it. That is, until today.
I went to the grocery store with two goals earlier today. The first was finding a sauce that was fairly low in calories. I compared every one of them in the sauce aisle, and for the most part, my favorite ready-made sauce, Classico-brand, was low. I did find one that was a smidge lower in calories, but not by much, and when I had it in the past, it did not taste good.
But spaghetti’s calorie liabilities are not made or broken via the sauce component. A big contributing factor to overall spaghetti calorie levels is the noodles. The noodles that I have historically used are American Beauty brand, which carries 200 calories per serving (2 oz) and 7 grams of protein.
I conducted a side-by-side comparison of every noodle type at my local grocery store, from those made with chickpeas to whole wheat noodles, and the best results I found were for Veggie Craft-brand noodles.
Veggie Craft spaghetti noodles are also 200 calories for a 2-oz serving. However, they contained 14 grams of protein, which was more than any other noodle option that I could find. They are made of peas, lentils, and cauliflower and contain 5 grams of dietary fiber per serving versus only 2 grams in the American Beauty noodles.
If people truly want to lower the calories of spaghetti, they can refrain from including meat altogether. However, that will result in a lower protein spaghetti compared to a version that incorporates meat or a meat substitute. I am a big fan of beef in my spaghetti, and during my calorie deficit, I have stuck to 93% lean ground beef, which is leaner than other beef with higher fat percentages and is packed with protein.
People can certainly use other ground meats or meat substitutes instead, but my personal preference is beef. Ground chicken breast has the fewest calories per serving (120), and ground turkey has the most protein per serving (28 grams) when it comes to ground meat options. 93% lean ground beef is 170 calories and 23-24 grams of protein per serving. Those numbers are something to consider.
With all of that in mind, the spaghetti that I made tonight was 445 total calories, 40 grams of which came from protein. Had I used the American Beauty noodles and 80% lean ground beef instead (but the same sauce), one serving would have been 555 total calories and 28 grams of protein.
Admittedly, that is not a massive difference in calories, but when every calorie counts, shaving off 110 calories is a big deal. And adding 12 grams of protein to a serving of any meal is significant when you are trying to get those gains 🙂 If you are looking for other meal ideas, check out previous articles that I posted for lower-calorie pizza, burritos, and BLTS.
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