You’ve probably heard that pasta dishes aren’t exactly the best for your health. They’re high in carbohydrates, which can cause blood sugar spikes that result in crashes, making you feel cranky, tired, and irritable. But in reality, pasta dishes can be a great source of important nutrients and energy, if they’re made correctly. If you just use the right types of pasta, fill the bowl up with plenty of delicious vegetables, and toss in a lean protein, it can become a super healthy, easy to eat, reheat, and transport, super enjoyable meal!
How can pasta be healthy?
You may have heard that pasta isn’t exactly the healthiest kind of meal to eat. It contains lots of easily digestible carbohydrates, which can cause your blood sugar to rise very quickly, and then it crashes down extremely fast. This can take a toll on both your mood and your energy levels. You may feel very tired afterwards, and you may start to get angry more easily with others.
But why does this happen? Your body requires carbohydrates to function properly , right? After all, they’re your body’s main source of energy.
Well, your body needs healthy, whole carbohydrates, like whole grains. Instead of using plain old white or yellow colored pasta, replace it with nutty, delicious whole wheat pasta. Instead of using white rice noodles, buy some brown rice noodles. You can even get pasta that is made from legumes, like chickpea pasta, red lentil pasta, black bean pasta, and even soy bean pasta! You can also buy pasta that is made with veggie powder added to the flour. The only real downside to going from refined grain to whole wheat is that the color of the pasta is different!
Another way to make pasta dishes healthier is by adding plenty of vegetables to it. Not only will they make your pasta healthier, but they’ll also make it much more interesting and fun to eat! Try adding some broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and baby corn to your Asian noodles. Add some broccoli or spinach into your Mac and cheese. Even add a tomato sauce to your pasta! (tomatoes are a fruit, but they’re nutritionally similar to vegetables. Mushrooms in pasta taste absolutely delicious!
And finally, another great way to make a pasta dish more healthy is to add a protein! Add some shrimp or pieces of chicken to your pasta. Add some toasted nuts, like walnuts, almonds, pistachio, pine nuts, peanuts, cashews, and so much more! Add some canned tuna or sardines to your pasta, they taste absolutely amazing. Add a low-fat cheese sauce, or even make a vegan cheese sauce from nutritional yeast!
What are some tasty pasta dishes that I should try?
There are plenty of unique, delicious, and absolutely outstanding pasta dishes that you can try! They can in every kind of shape and color that you can possibly think of.
Some great dishes include:
- Stir-fry noodles
- Vegan Mac and Cheese
- High Protein Sardine Pasta
Stir fry noodles are great because they have lots of vegetables, protein,a ND healthy fats from added nuts.
Vegan Mac and cheese is great because of the healthy fats from the cashew-based sauce, the fiber and minerals from the broccoli and chickpea pasta, and the plenty of vitamins from the nutritional yeast.
High protein sardine pasta is an excellent choice because It contains plenty of vegetables, lots of protein for your muscles, healthy Omega-3 fatty acids from the sardines, a hefty serving fiber and minerals from the chickpea pasta, and packs a ton of great flavor!
To make a pasta dish taste great, it needs a good sauce to go on top. There’s always the classic, bright red marinara sauce, that tops a pile of spaghetti, with fresh Parmesan grated on top. There’s also Alfredo sauce, which is a creamy sauce with pepper, Parmesan, onion, and garlic. And then there’s bright green pesto, made with delicious olive oil, fresh basil, garlic, and pine nuts. You can also make your noodles Asian by adding a delicious peanut sauce, or a dark lo-mein sauce. Whatever kind of sauce you decide to put on top of your pasta, just remember to keep it healthy; not adding to much cream or cheese, and instead using a touch of olive oil, and keeping it low on the added salt.
There are also literally hundreds of unique pasta shapes that you can choose from, depending on your preferences and what kind of dish you want to make. Spaghetti is the most popular pasta shapes in the United States, because of it’s versatility and ability to hold many different types of sauces. Penne is also a very common choice because it’s hollow on the inside, which holds sauces inside, so when you bite into a piece, you get much more sauce. Then, there’s elbows, which are mostly used for Mac and Cheese, but they can really be used in almost any pasta dish!
If you want to experience a pasta dish like never before, try some not-so well known pasta shapes. Mafaldine pasta is long, flat, wide, and ribbon shaped, just like linguine, but it is usually about a centimeter in width. Cavatappi, which means “corkscrew” in Italian, is very similar to elbow pasta, but it is much longer! Or, even try Ruote pazze, which means “crazy wagon wheels” in Italian. It literally looks exactly like wagon wheels!
Whatever kind of pasta you decide to use, just remember to try and keep it whole grain. It will have a stronger, nuttier wheat flavor, and it will be better for you!
If you’ve cut pasta out of your diet because you fear it’s unhealthy effects, you should reconsider! Pasta can actually be really healthy for you! All you really have to do is use whole grain pasta, then balance it out with a lean protein and plenty of veggies. The carbohydrates in pasta are not bad for. Instead of thinking that carbs with cause you to gain weight, think of them as a great source of energy for exercise, fun activities, and everyday life!
Matt's Meals 
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