Carrots instead of Pasta
 

Yum yum. Well Spaghetti Bolognaise (or pasta) is probably my favourite food of all time (I'm Irish, y'know so not very traditional) and I love love love the pasta part of it and I didn't want to give it up but I know I normally eat way too much. So what I tried this time was having just a few pieces of pasta and then I made some boiled carrots and mixed them together. Then had sauce on top that I made with tins of chopped tomatoes and more veg.

I honestly barely noticed the lack of pasta, the few pieces I included were plenty to get the taste and I didn't feel bloated afterwards either. :)

Does anybody else do stuff like this?

Yes! I do it all the time. When my mom makes some pasta I like I do have a little bit and substitute what I would have had with veggies or meat :)

I haven't tried this yet (I would really love to), but have you looked into spaghetti squash? I mean, come on, a veggie that is just like pasta? I'm there!

I've never heard of it but it sounds amazing! I'll look out for it, for sure.

I was just so pleasantly surprised that I didn't notice the lack of pasta, considering I'm a pasta-holic. Well, noo more :)

Definitely do this! I use julienned zucchini though, like those better than carrots. A friend of mine does paleo and used cabbage as her pasta, looked interesting, I'm gonna give that a try sometime.

I just walked away from the bread aisle yesterday! I was pmsing and the temptation was soo strong, I even started telling myself, hey ur skinny friends can eat all this, so why can't you? and i told myself "we'll theyre not dieting and bread doesn't make em go into an eating frenzy!"
its funny cause pasta and bread and arent that filling by themselves are kinda bland but SOOO addictive.

Man, you guys. Spaghetti squash is GREAT. I even sautee mine with some garlic after I'm done baking it in the oven. My boyfriend was put off because he was expecting it to TASTE like pasta. It's still a squash, but it really is pretty awesome.

I do this with courgette! Had carbonara on courgette 'noodles' the other night - yum!

It's hard to find spaghetti squash over here (eg Ireland, where the OP is from, and England, where I live). I have once found it at Waitrose but it seems to only show up when it's in season and only rarely. I love it though, so OP if you can find some, you should totally give it a try! It's so good with garlic and butter roasted in the oven... mmmm....

I use zucchini, spaghetti squash and yellow squash as my pasta-builder-upper, lol.. Can't give up pasta. :D

Spaghetti squash has a delicious, nutty flavor that doesn't taste like spaghetti but is REALLY tasty and filling in its own right.

I love pasta too, and I've been making it way healthier and lower in calories by cutting the amount of pasta I eat back to one serving (~200 calories), and then stir-frying a few veggies (usually an ounce of mushrooms and 50g of broccoli) and 4-5oz of chicken breast to add to a quarter cup of an alfredo sauce. It clocks in at just under 500 calories with way more variety, protein, and veg than the straight pasta with sauce and cheese I'd been craving, and it is gosh darn delicious.

I agree with Daki completely, I use the squash as a complete substitute for pasta in my pasta dishes. It tastes so great.

I think weight watchers ages ago used to give people the idea of adding grated carrot to your bolognaise as a replacement for some of the mince- tasty, filling, and takes out more calories :D

Some great ideas! I might start mixing lots of stuff in future too. I'm a big courgette fan and I grow vegetables too. Starting to dig the polytunnel now :)

Pixellate Well done for resisting! I was soo tempted the other day too, looking at croissants and my boyfriend got one. I got a very small seed roll instead and waited til I was home to eat it with lunch. Phew!

I swear by spaghetti squash!!! I use it with SOOOOO many different recipes and its incredibly filling! MUST. TRY. ASAP!

Yeah spaghetti squash would be hard to find here. I thought I might grow some but I'm not even sure it'd work in the polytunnel. They need a lot of heat it seems.. oh well.

i love spaghetti squash with a little butter and parmesan cheese with salt and pepper, tastes very much like angel hair pasta that way to me.