BT Pasta Salad

I was so excited to get my first issue of Food Network magazine yesterday, and spent an hour going over every page, excited about so many recipes to play with (I even got laughed at by a friend last night who said I need to lay off Food Network!).

I came across a recipe for BLT pasta salad, and thought, yum!!! Until I saw the calories per serving...960!!! 56 grams of fat and over 2000mg of sodium, no thank you!!!

So, I created my own version, using ingredients I had on hand, and I've got to say, while I'm sure their recipe would be delicious, ummm, not for half my daily calorie allotment for the day!

My version:

• 56g Barilla Plus elbow noodles
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper
• 3 slices bacon
• 1.5 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
• 1TB extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tomato

Cook pasta according to directions (I let mine go for about 9-10 minutes, the box says 7). Drain and rinse with cold water.

Chop tomato, bell pepper, cooked bacon and mozzarella.

Combine ingredients, season with EVOO (I estimated mine was about a tablespoon and I included this in the recipe for the calorie calculation). I also used red wine vinegar (just a couple of splashes), salt, pepper and this McCormick Salad Supreme seasoning.

The result? Pretty tasty!! I don't miss the creamy dressing that the original recipe includes, and it's much lighter.

Nutritional information (you can probably get 2 servings out of this if served with a side and a light salad)

Calories: 521
Total Fat: 28g (14g comes from the EVOO, but it's a healthy fat!)
Sodium: 421mg
Carbs: 44g
Sugar: 3g
Fiber: 5g
Protein: 21g

Product Review: Barilla Pasta Plus

As someone who is always trying to get more protein in her diet (I aim for 90 grams a day, and believe me, it's difficult to get up there most days!), I was curious when I stumbled across the new line of pasta, Barilla Plus.

Each 100g serving has 17 grams of protein (compared to 7 grams in the traditional Barilla pasta, so not a huge difference there), but also contains 7 grams of fiber (2 grams in the traditional pasta) and 360mg of Omega 3's. (Now, I just made the "normal" 2 ounce serving, so that only has 10 grams of protein).

There is really no difference in taste between the new and the old noodles, and when I added in a chicken sausage link (spinach, roasted garlic and fontina cheese from Trader Joes) and some shredded cheese (stick under the broiler for a few minutes), you've got a complete meal!