I am bound and determined to stick to my low-carb diet, but I’m also highly motivated to enjoy every bite of food that enters my mouth. To tell you the truth, it hasn’t been that difficult. I can eat chocolate and drink wine, and as long as I stick to one or two grainy carbs a day (one if I can) then I don’t bloat, and I can pretend I’m the skinny bitch of my dreams.
I feel my best if I eat my carb in the morning, so I usually have half an Ezekiel English muffin and an egg and some fruit, a salad with some sort of protein for lunch and meat and veggies for dinner. And plenty of healthy snacks, I’m not fasting, for crying out loud. Yeah, I make exceptions, but our regular pasta dinners have become few and far between.
We miss them — just a little — so we did a little experiment tonight to see if we could re-create one of our favorite pasta dishes, sans pasta. It was so successful, I think it may have tasted even better than our pasta dish and … carb-less!
Pasta-less Pasta
Ingredients:
Roast the red pepper through the summer squash at 400 degrees convection roast for 20 minutes or so (or 425 degrees, flipping halfway through). Meanwhile, whisk together last five ingredients.
Toss everything together and serve. Yum!
I know what you’re thinking: What’s with all the dried herbs, Deb? Don’t you know that fresh are superior? Well, I do, but here’s the thing. I didn’t have fresh herbs, so I went with what I had, and it tasted so good that I didn’t want to substitute the fresh herbs and have you miss out on the experience of what I ate.
Feel free to add plenty of chopped fresh basil or parsley; I’m sure it could only enhance the recipe. And feel free to roast up some halved garlic cloves with the other veggies, too.
Debbie-
Sounds yummy! I think I’ll try it.
Have you tried Marys Gone crackers? I like the pepper. The give some much needed crunch to a low carb world. They also are gluten free and have omega 3 goodness in them.
I have 2-4 a day with giant pieces of cheese!
(side note)
Last night my husband saw me eating one and thought it was a chocolate chip cookie – so I gave him one. Let’s just say his reaction was priceless.
I haven’t tried those crackers, but they sound similar to Dr. Kracker’s (I think that’s what they’re called) which are yummy. I keep meaning to try making my own seed crackers; I have a recipe that is flourless… there’s a post in there somewhere….
I was sure this was going to have spaghetti squash in it, the darling of low-carb dieters. No one is convincing me that squash is an acceptable substitute for pasta, ever. That said, there is no beating crispy sauteed broccoli. Yum!
That sounds really good. I think I’ll yank out the onion and pepper, add the garlic and replace the chicken breast with the Quorn Naked Chick’n cutlets and give it a try!