Pasta Salad

So, I've been seeing these commercials for pasta salads recently. No, I didn't go out and buy any, however, I had a first attempt at one today. To be fair it's really more of a veggie salad with a little pasta in it. It was really good though. I did learn a couple of things.

1. I like most vegetables raw, but not so fond of broccoli raw
2. Chick peas are tasty, but not sure they're worth the calories
3. I need to find a protein source I like cold (other than cheese)
4. I should label my homemade dressings (think I used the one I'd planned)
5. I really don't need a lot of pasta to enjoy it (1oz whole wheat used)

This time I used:

1 oz whole wheat penne (100)
2 oz celery (9)
2 oz carrots (24)
2 oz broccoli (16)
2.5 oz tomato (15)
1 oz green pepper (8)
1/2 oz onion (5)
1/4 can (19oz) chick peas, rinsed (184)
1 turkey bite sausage (50)
3 Tb homemade herb dressing (26)

Cook pasta al dente, and drain. While pasta is cooking chop the veggies and mix with chick peas and salad dressing. Toss pasta in and serve.

I put the individual calories in just for information. As I said, I'm not sure if I would add the chick peas (although I really do like them, so I probably will). I'll look out and enter the herb dressing recipe as well, but you could substitute any vinaigrette. The only thing about the homemade one is that it's oil free, so lower cal.

As pictured (big portion): 437cals (25g protein, 7g fat, 76g carbs, 17g fiber)
Without chick peas: 254cals (14g protein, 5g fat, 44g carbs, 8g fiber)
Without turkey sausage: 204cals (8g protein, 2g fat, 43g carbs, 8g fiber)

Spicy Sausage Sauce

So this is something I worked on yesterday (the sauce). I'm thinking it's pretty much where I want it to be. The only thing I might change next time is to boost the sausage to get a higher percentage of protein. I was making something else with wine, and thought about adding some, but I'm not sure it needs it. It divided up into 9 portions (approx 8oz by weight). They were probably also close to 1 cup in volume as well.

1 tbsp oil
16 oz mushrooms, sliced
8 oz onions, sliced
1-1/2 cups beef stock
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp basil leaves, dried
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 x 28 oz cans diced tomatoes
2 tbsp ketchup
1 lb hot italian turkey sausage, removed from casing

Heat oil in sauce pot and start browning the onions and mushrooms. Use the beef stock (adding slowly) when the mixture starts to stick. Once browned add in the seasonings and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and boil rapidly until sauce thickens and tomatoes break up a little. Add the rest of the stock, ketchup, and water if needed. Once mixture is at desired consistency take sausage and drop into sauce in small pieces. Continue cooking until sausage is heated through. Serve with pasta of your choice.

Makes: 9 servings

Calories: 173 (12g protein, 8g fat, 15g carbs)

Notes: The sausage was actually a 500g package (454g = 1lb) with total calories of 840 (78g protein, 54g fat, 6g carbs). You could also cook it longer and slower and not need to add the ketchup at all. I'd boiled it quite fast, so there wasn't that nice caramelized sweet taste, so I cheated and added the ketchup. From start to finish (including chopping) it was well under an hour. Usually I'll cook sauce slower (hours), but just didn't have the time. You do need to add the sausage at the end as the tomatoes will take some of the heat out of the sausage. I make up for this by adding hot pepper flakes, although now that I'm thinking about it this would be better done after the freezing point.

Oh, the picture was one serving of sauce, 1.5 oz of rotini (pasta plus), 2Tb parmesan, and 6oz of green beans roasted. Total for plate - 453 cals.

Roasted Tomato Pasta

This is one of those dishes that can be completely changed around to suit your mood, what you have on hand, and who else you're feeding. If I was making it for just myself I'd make it almost the way I do here, without the sausage. My mother is fine with vegetarian meals... as long as you add a little meat to it.

2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes
1 medium onion
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried hot chilies (adjust down if you want)

Cut the tomatoes in half. Cut the onion in half and then thin slices, top to bottom. Mix all together in a large bowl. Preheat oven to 400F and line a tray with a double layer of aluminum foil (not necessary, but makes it easy to clean up). Bake for 45 mins and toss over pasta.

That above is 389 calories and should be at least two servings (you could probably stretch to 3). If you want to use less pasta (note, I have not mentioned how much, since that's up to you), change the recipe.

2 cups cauliflower, broken into small pieces (no larger than the 1/2 tomatoes)
2 cups snow peas, cut in half
2 chicken/turkey sausages (I buy them at Costco, 130cals ea), cut in quarter, then sliced

The cauliflower goes in at the start, with the tomatoes and onion. The snow peas and the sausages go in about 15-20 minutes before you're done. You can pretty much add what you want, just watch the cooking time of each veg. Mushrooms and eggplant will discolour the other vegetables, so if you want to use them, save a little oil and put on another sheet.

With those additions, we're up to 781 calories (without pasta). I add 3 oz of pasta to bring it up to a total of 1091 calories. This makes 2 very large servings. Adding another ounce of pasta I would say easily could serve 3 people. I also add a little parmesan cheese before serving. So at 2 Tbsp that's another 25 calories each.

I can't give an overall calorie count, as you see there are so many things you can change to suit your tastes. The picture just shows the roasted veggies (tomatoes, onion, beans, zucchini) without the meat or pasta.