Healthy Italian

When it comes to pasta, my Italian mother is pretty old school. My refusal to eat white pasta is still a source of contention in our household; my mom insists the whole wheat version tastes like cardboard, while I’m quick to point out that eating white pasta is like eating pure sugar for dinner.

So you can imagine my surprise when she cut out this recipe for Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Tomatoes and Beans from the National Post and suggested we have it for dinner one night. What surprised me even more than my mother’s sudden willingness to try a white carb substitute was how yummy it turned out – who knew a vegetable could taste so good?

I actually prefered the taste and texture of the spaghetti squash to whole wheat pasta and even my mom kind of liked it (she described it as “different” which I suppose is a step up from “cardboard”). And, at only 40 calories per cup (compared to about 200 for regular pasta), you can eat a huge serving of it, making it a satisfying, nutrient dense meal. Next time, I want to try it with my mom’s homemade spaghetti sauce.

After dinner, I went to my cycling class. I took a two week break from spinning (I was starting to get burned out) but I’m now back with a vengeance. My legs were burning and I was panting for air by the end of each track, which is how I know I worked hard.