Don't knock it till you try it.

Loosing weight can often times be hard, but the good thing is that the food market provides a lot of healthy options to make this goal easier to attain. I know that when I first switched to fat free milk and whole wheat bread 3 ears ago, I never thought I'd like it. Foods like turkey burgers and whole wheat pasta were such crazy ideas to me at the time. Good thing I tried it all out, because I realized that I really do enjoy some of the healthier options out there.

While I have some time now, I wanted to write about a meal I made for my family recently. Healthy Spaghetti! I can't tell you if my family enjoyed it because I can't speak for them haha. I think it was definitely different from the spaghetti we're used to. My mom makes the best spaghetti and she usually adds to huge spoonfuls of sour cream and then two more spoonfuls of butter. Eeeek! I can see the calories adding up in my head. I'm not going to lie, it's absolutely delicious, but since we were on my turf, it was going to be healthy spaghetti!

Now, I got the recipe from my Biggest Loser Cookbook and I'll share it here.

The Pasta Part:

Use whole wheat pasta and boil it like you would for spaghetti.

Sauce:

1/3 cup finely chopped yellow or white person

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 1/3 cups canned crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon no-salt-added tomato paste

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves

Lightly mist a medium nonstick saucepan with olive oil spray. Set over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until almost tender (do not brown). Reduce the heat to low. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, water, honey, oregano, Italian seasoning, olive oil, and basil. Stir with a wooden spoon to mix. Simmer for 5 minutes for the flavors to blend.

76 calories. How can you beat that?!

Now when I made it, I added ground turkey and I didn't like how that turned out. I'd stick to the recipe. I love it. I can't wait to make it again!

Next ...

This is my new favorite drink. You couldn't pay me to drink that Tomato V8 juice that they sell. BUT .. the clever people of V8 have been mixing their fruits and veggies and now there is V8 Fruit Fusion! Amazing! I absolutely love it. Sometimes, I do think I can taste the veggies, but if I put some ice in my glass it goes down smooth. I have 3 different flavors in fridge now. My favorite is the Pomegranate Blueberry blend. It has anti-oxidants which I love and anything blueberry is supposed to make you happy. If you experience depression, eat some blue berries! V8 does have other blends available but the V-Fusions are my favorite.

And....

So .. I'm always confused after those Julia Louis Dreyfus commercials that Healthy Choice has ever since they re-vamped their TV dinners. You know, the funny one from Seinfeld. I can never tell if the commercial is supposed to make me like the new product or not. Either way, it confused me and the last time I walked into the store I bought some out of curiosity. Their marketing strategy worked.

So I had the Turkey Medallion Healthy Choice this week and I have to say .. it was phenomenal!! I never like TV dinners at all. The turkey pieces were substantial.. the mashed potato had consistency and don't get me started on the warm cranberries, apples, and butternut squash. It was really good!!!

Now, I also have to add that our microwave stopped working a couple weeks ago and we've been cooking all our TV dinners in the oven. What a world of difference! I recommend everyone put them in the oven rather than microwave plus it makes you wait 30 minutes which allows you to not eat as fast and to take your time when you finally have your meal. I'm including a picture of the actual meal when it's done. I think it was scrumptious and it was 220 calories.

The rumor is that these new meals are high in sodium. This one was 500 mg of sodium. The recommended salt intake is between the range of 1,500 and 2,400 milligrams (mg) a day for healthy adults. So, I'm thinking that as long as you keep track of your sodium intake throughout the day, you should be ok. All in all it's a good meal and very low in calories. I had the Sweet & Sour chicken for lunch today and it was good too!

Gotta give these foods a chance .. there's a world of healthy out there!