Italian Comeback
Saturday, April 26th, 2008I’m back! It took a while, but I’ve settled into my new location and I’m ready to start writing again. To celebrate, I have a new recipe for you. Wait for it, wait for it……Spaghetti! Wait a minute, didn’t we spend a lot of time talking about how bad white flour is (which is what most pasta is made of) and how important it is to watch your insulin levels? All that is true, however there is a way to have spaghetti anyways, and no it doesn’t involve some weird pseudo spaghetti made with odd ingredients.
So first of all, if you review The Carbohydrate Conundrum you’ll see that you have can have medium insulin impact meals at three times: Breakfast, Post Workout, and Leptin Recovery Days (usually the weekend for me). Normal spaghetti recipes are high impact, REALLY high impact, so normally it’s a cheat meal, but there are two things we can do alter that equation. First, we switch to a whole grain or blended pasta like Barilla Plus Thin Spaghetti check out the ingredients list:
Semolina, grain and legume flour blend (lentils, chick peas, oats, spelt, barley, egg whites, ground flaxseeds and wheat fiber), niacin, ferrous lactate (iron), thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid.
It’s higher in protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and has a lower insulin impact, much lower. NOTE: Despite the improvements, this is not an anytime food!
In addition to using better noodles, we can help things out by adjusting the noodles to sauce ratio. Most of the time when you cook or order spaghetti you’re going to get a mountain of noodles with a bit of sauce on top. This is due to the fact that noodles tend to be cheap, and it’s traditional. In our case, we want the flavor and mouth feel, but a lower insulin impact, so we’re going to turn things around and use a vat of sauce with a bit of noodles instead.
Whenever you’re making a meal, you need to make sure you’re meeting all of your diet objectives, and one of those is to get enough protein every day. 1.25g/lb of lean body mass to be exact. For me right now that means about 215g per day, MINIMUM. My current weekly calorie intake goal is around 17,000 Calories, so we’re looking at about 2428 Calories per day (average, remember I usually use a 5/2 low/high split instead). Whip out the calculator and that comes out to a minimum protein density requirement of about 11.29 calories per gram. We need to add some fudge factor because not all of our meals will be perfect, so I usually use 10 Calories per gram. Any meal that has more than 10 Calories per gram of protein is generally not going to be a good part of your diet plan.
Given our protein requirement, first of we’re definitely going to be using a meat sauce, but that’s so tasty it’s hard to imagine not doing that anyways. In addition, we’re going to increase the amount of hamburger used by about 3.5 times. That will pack a big protein punch, and lower the overall insulin impact. Listed below is my mom’s spaghetti recipe (Thanks mom!) heavily modified and spiced up a bit:
3.5 Lbs Hamburger (Use 7% fat)
1 Large Onion, Chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper, Chopped
6 Mushrooms, Chopped or Sliced
2 Cans Sliced Black Olives
1 Can Stewed Tomatoes (watch out for sugar!)
1 Can Diced Tomatoes
1 Large Can Crushed Tomatoes
1 Large Can Tomato Sauce
1 Sliced and Halved Tomato
1 Cup Water
2 Teaspoons Salt
2 Teaspoons Pepper
1 Teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce (This has sugar in it, but given the quantity we’re using it’s irrelevant)
1/8th Stick of Butter
2 Teaspoons Italian Seasoning
2 Tablespoons of Diced Garlic
2 Tablespoons of Parmesan Cheese
1/2 Package of Barilla Plus Thin Spaghetti (Definitely use the thin noodles, you’ll get a lower insulin impact for the same taste and mouth feel)
First throw the hamburger in a skillet to brown, put the noodles in a pot with a touch of salt and a touch of oil to slow boil (use canola or olive oil), then put the rest of the ingredients in a BIG pot on medium. Once the hamburger is browned and the main ingredients are bubbling, go ahead and mix in the meat. By this time the noodles should be mostly done, drain them and throw them in as well. Simmer the entire mixture for about 30 minutes, and you’re ready for a feast!
Generally I package everything in 1 3/4 cup Ziplock bowls, this recipe makes around 10 servings, which is plenty for a week or two of after workout meals and weekends. If you want to see the impact, take a look at the graphs. As you can see, even with garlic toast (butter and garlic salt on low impact bread like Sara Lee 100% Whole Wheat with Honey) the meal comes out as medium impact, which is AOK as long as you eat it at the right time. So break out your bib, and pop a dvd of the Godfather into the player so you can sit down and enjoy a proper Italian meal.
