June 3, 2009 12:49 pm

Tweak Yourself Thin

If I had it my way, I'd eat pasta everyday. Pasta for breakfast, pasta for lunch, some more pasta for dinner and of course, pasta as a late night snack. However, in the interest of not weighing three hundred pounds, I am forced to limit my pasta consumption to a mere two or three times a week. Isn't your heart breaking for me?

In an effort to ease my guilt over indulging in my pasta addiction, I do my best to incorporate the healthiest ingredients into my meal, hopefully to balance out the calories of the pasta. Loads of fresh, crisp veggies are probably my favorite add-in, but once my other addiction, cheese, rears its pungent head, the low-cal theme is quickly forgotten.

Several weeks ago, Lifetime TV launched a new show, "Cook Yourself Thin," themed around the concept of enjoying your favorite dishes, but tweaking the recipes to make them waistline friendly. Excitement immediately set in, as recipe tweaking to avoid guilt is a major premise in my pint-sized kitchen. Unfortunately, the episodes are about as entertaining as watching paint dry, but luckily the recipes are available online.

The first week of airing, "Cook Yourself Thin" featured a recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara which sported about half the calories as the restaurant version. Ever the skeptic, I doubted the recipe, assuming that some things just shouldn't be messed with, but wanted to find out for sure. The "Cook Yourself Thin" recipe substituted low-fat milk for butter, limited the bacon to three slices and incorporated frozen peas to add flavor and nutrition-healthy veggies. I didn't bother to look at how much cheese their recipe called for, as I knew it would be nowhere near enough for me. Although their recipe sounded good, I am stubborn enough to think I know better, so I tweaked the already tweaked dish, made a grocery list and hoped for the best.

Barilla Plus multi-grain spaghetti, turkey bacon, Le Sueur peas, pecans, and fat-free half-and-half was substituted in the recipe, making it more my style. I put the pasta pot up first, as my mini-stove takes an hour and a day to boil water. Next, I diced six slices of turkey bacon, at a mere 35 calories and 3 grams of fat per slice, and dropped the bits into a super hot frying pan. Once they were crispy, I removed them from the pan, but retained the juices to act as added flavor for sauteing the onion I had finely chopped to be added to the pan. While the onion cooked I whisked together fat-free milk, a heavy splash of fat-free half-and-half, one large egg and one large egg white. Using a combination of eggs and egg whites retains the protein, but eliminates more than half of the calories and fat. The Le Sueur peas were added to the sauteing onion a minute before the onion was translucent. Peas get mushy quick, so I just wanted to blanch them in the olive oil to slightly cook them without making my dinner into baby food.

Sipping a glass of wine (I only had one to keep the low-cal theme intact), I stared into the never boiling pot of water. The bacon pieces were put in the oven to prevent pre-dinner snacking, and finally, the boiling bubbles decided to make an appearance. Ten minutes later, I had chopped the pecans, drained the pasta, added the milk-eggs combo, stirred in the onion and peas and mixed in the bacon. To finish, I added a mound of Pecorino Romano, skipping the measurement because being thin is never worth skimping on the cheese.

Hot damn, I did it again! My tweak of the tweaked recipe was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. I could not believe that something that had such little fat and calories could be so incredibly satisfying. The multi-grain spaghetti soaked up the creamy egg/egg white and dairy mixture, giving the dish just enough liquid to be moist but not drippy. I love bacon any which way I can get it, so naturally the turkey bacon delighted my taste buds. The pecans were also a pleasant touch, as they brought protein, healthy fat and an added crunch. The sauteed onion added the most wonderful flavor, further carried over by the peas, which had also cooked in the bacon juices. This one is most definitely a keeper.

You want to know the only thing better than pasta? Leftover pasta. A pound of pasta for one person is a lot, but the leftovers in the fridge gave me savory low cal dreams (and lunches) for another three days.

—Alexis Popov

— Written by Alexis Popov

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