My family loves eating spaghetti. We could eat it several nights a week and be just fine with that.
We love eating it the traditional way with noodles but since pasta is high in carbs I wanted to find an alternative healthier way we could still enjoy it.
When we eat a lot of pasta we get backed up and it just makes everyone feel weighed down (at least in my family). It’s always good to find a healthy balance with the foods we eat.
While I was learning about the keto lifestyle I ran into plant-based noodles that contain no starch, wheat or gluten but only soluble fiber. They are also super-low in carbs. This was great for our change of eating habits.
However, I wanted to find other ways to eat our favorite meals even when I didn’t have any of these healthier noodle choices on hand to use.
I first came across using zucchini pasta which are often called zoodles. They are way less in calories than regular noodles. I tried this substitute for our spaghetti nights and it was totally delicious.
We didn’t feel weighed down and to be honest I didn’t even miss the noodles. It was a healthier tasty option.
Later on I started to find other fruits that would make great substitutes for pasta meals. I recently saw recipes using summer squash.
Sometimes I forget that squash and zucchini are really fruits because they are predominantly cooked like a vegetable.
After removing the skin I used a peeler to make thin slices of summer squash for the noodles.
At first they were a lot thicker than this until I start cutting the squash a little thinner. I have smaller ones at home and I know if I made them too thick they would pick through their bowls and start taking them out. I had to make them thin and disguisable. 😁
I have learned with my kids that when trying new things it needs to blend in and not stand out as
Hey, I’m a new healthy food, I hope you like me! 😂
My kids love sticking to what they are familiar with so it’s important not to go too big when introducing them to new flavors and textures.
You don’t need to boil soodles as long as you do regular pasta. I boiled them for just about 3 minutes.
You don’t want to over boil and make them too soggy.
I don’t make any other changes to my spaghetti besides omitting the pasta. I use ground beef or ground turkey and load it with plenty of other veggies: onions, garlic, mushroom, tomatoes, sometimes carrot pieces etc.
One of the reasons I love cooking spaghetti for my family is because I can hide all sorts of healthy things in there without them knowing. 😆
I use my food processor to make things like mushrooms so small that my picky eaters won’t even know they’re in there. Tee hee hee! 😜
Once the soodles were done I lightly seasoned them with sea salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. I love making sure my foods are seasoned throughout, my noodles don’t skip this process either.
I do what you call a layered seasoning with my meals. Each element that gets added to a dish gets some kind of seasoning on it. I don’t wait to add flavor to my foods until the end. Doing this throughout the cooking process helps ensure that every bite will be one to remember. 😎
Once my meat and sauce were ready I began adding in the soodles.
I think next time I will boil them for an even shorter amount of time to allow them to be a little more firm. I’d say 2 minutes tops. 👌🏽
They were so soft I was afraid to cut them in half or into small pieces.
We like the length of noodles so I really didn’t want to do that. In the end it turned out okay and the soodles kept their length. They were just so fragile that they looked almost chopped in half.
Finally when everything was all mixed well together we were ready to get our hands on this yummy healthy spaghetti alternative with summer squash noodles ...
It was totally delicious and there were no leftovers. My family loved it and weren’t even bothered by the soodles. If the flavor is there my family will eat it! 🤣