Pasta time

Had a pasta dinner tonight.



The Barilla Plus looks to be pretty good stuff and it delivers in the taste department in my opinion. I've had some whole grain pasta that has a real thickness to it that is hard to get down after a few bites but this plus is tasty. It's got good #'s in a pasta for protein, ala's, Omega 3, fiber...it is good stuff. The sauce came in on a tip from my buddy Shaun, a tip that at first didn't look so hot. This stuff is $5-$6 a jar and not the $2-$3 I normally pay. A quick look at the ingredients explains why it's worth the extra cash. It's got something like: Tomatoes, Extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper. That's it. (totally worth the extra money to eat something as clean and healthy as this). It is not something like: Reconstituted tomato paste and water, hydrologized xanthium gum, high fructose corn syrup, and spices. Good clean sauce, a healthier choice in pasta and it was on the way to dinner time. We rounded it up with some steamed organic veggies of broccoli and butternut squash and the finish was some spinach leaf salad with red wine vinaigrette.

My portion strategy was to go smaller on the pasta, equal it with steamed vegetables, and make my big pile spinach. It worked out well except I learned that a little vinaigrette goes a long way. My old habits of adding a lot of salad dressing must have had me pour more than I needed but uhmm... Yeah, lighter on the vinaigrette next time for sure.

I've done good this week with meals sticking with healthy choices a quick sample list would be.

Stir fry on brown rice with veggies 4 to 1 over some grilled chicken.
Beans and rice (brown rice) and with chicken sausage.
Yogurt in several forms from plain to a mix with wild blueberries and a handful of shredded wheat n' bran thrown in.
Tons of water.
Green tea in the evenings.

I picked up some steel cut oats today (the 45min cooking time ones that are like tiny rocks) to try and get them in the rotation soon.

I also plan on trying to make some "powerhouse pancakes" that I might have on the weekends. I'm going to try and stick a lot of healthy stuff in there like overload style. Buckwheat pumpkin banana muscle milk pancakes anyone? I'm not so sure it will work but I do plan on working in buckwheat and pumpkin somehow real soon.

I'm not going to post any weigh in info until next Monday but I will say things are trending in the right direction and I expect to smash my first 10# goal on time and I will go over. Of course these are the easy days but every pound down gets me closer to the final goal so it's all good.