Carbs may be an enemy for some, but not me. No sir. I have never been scared of carbs. And I surely never got involved in the low carb craze. I love my bread and pasta! This is a good thing as carbohydrates provide fuel for the body, right?
Right!
However, I try to make sure I balance out the amount of carbs I eat with other healthy, nutritious foods.
For example, for dinner tonight I could have had a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce and called it a night.
But instead, I balanced out my meal by adding chicken sausage and vegetables.
The chicken sausage provided more protein.
And the vegetables provided, well, a serving of vegetables. But also more vitamins and minerals!
The vegetables I included were:
- Zucchini
- Yellow squash
- Mushrooms
And the chicken sausage I used was Al Fresco spinach & feta. 
Which I threw on the grill for about ten minutes.
I actually cooked the vegetables on the grill as well!
They were sprayed with olive oil, and then Chris added a dash of S & P,garlic powder, and Mrs. Dash’s All-Purpose seasoning. Then we wrapped them in aluminum foil and grilled them for 10 minutes.
Yay for easy clean up!
I would also like to note that I used Barilla Plus angel hair pasta. 
(source)
Which provides 10g of protein and 4g of dietary fiber per 2 oz. serving. I did not measure how much pasta was on my plate, but I am willing to guess there was at least 4 oz. on there. This also means that I had ~ 420 calories worth of pasta. Add the chicken sausage, vegetables, and cheese, and my dinner was at least 600 calories.
Which is right on target for me!
Not sure why I felt the need to add those calories up. I guess I just wanted to illustrate that I had more than than one serving of pasta (2 oz. is not a lot!), which didn’t push me over the edge calorie wise.
Moving on……
For the pasta sauce I used 1/4 cup of store brand tomato sauce.
It was all I had! And the 1/4 cup when just on my plate.
Lastly I shredded some fresh parmesan cheese on top.
So there you have it. I turned what could have been a boring ol’ plate of pasta into a scrumptious, healthy, balanced meal!
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Dessert was a small bowl of cookies and cream ice cream.
My favorite!
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And exercise for the day consisted of:
- 30 minutes of Yoga for Runners on Yoga Download
- A three mile walk with some girlfriends and the pup
It has been on the cooler side for the past few days so swimming is unfortunately out of the question. I’m sure it will warm up soon enough!
Q for U -
What’s one dish that you think is easy to boost the nutritional value of?
