I have never gotten into the idea of the high protein diet, because I don't eat enough meat to be able to do that. But it did alert me to the sheer number of calories in pasta.

Anyhow, I have been trying out different things to have as fake pasta. I have tried cauliflower and chedder for mac and cheese, which is good. Ribboned zuchinni for spaggetti.

What I tried last night, and it never occured to me before, was eggplant. I sliced it fairly thing, put it into a non stick skillet and added some chicken broth to lightly steam/grill it ... no added fat .... and then after a few minutes added in my other vegggies.

I put tomato sauce on top, with some cheese, and the eggplant had a great comparable texture to the chewy pasta!!!

Another great option, when it's in season, is spaghetti squash. My DH loves it!

I am going to try the eggplant suggestion because we have some in our garden. Just curious, has anyone ever tried the sheritaki noodles (sp?) that hungry girl suggests as a replacement for pasta? I haven't been able to find them locally.
Judy

I like the shiritaki noodles - they don't taste really pasta like, but for the number of calories I find them good tasting enough. I get the volume I'm looking for without the huge calorie count. I don't know if you have Safeway where you are, but that's where I find them here in Northern California.

I like spaghetti squash, too!

I do not enjoy the shirataki noodles. But if you take a y-shaped vegetable peeler, you can make zucchini fettucini, which not only tastes good, but rhymes!

We really like the Shirataki noodles - at least the fettuccine ones. To me, the spaghetti style ones were too chewy. The fettuccine style noodles are much thinner. The best way I've found to cook them is (after the rinsing, drying, nuking for a minute and drying some more) to put them in with the marinara sauce and heat both together on low for maybe 30-45 minutes. Not bad at all. Definitely not the same as regular white pasta, but for 20 calories a serving, I think I can live with it. Originally, I could only find them at the Hi-Vee store in Fort Dodge, IA when we were visiting the in-laws. Now they are available locally at Cashwise and Hornbachers. (Found in the refrigerated health food section.)

Kimberly

These are great ideas! Especially the eggplant because I think eggplant + tomatoes = lurv. I've been using an idea I got from Glory somewhere on the site: shredding a couple of cups of raw spinach, putting it on my plate, then laying on 1/2 cup of whole wheat pasta and topping it with the sauce. That is so yummy!