Hey carb-counting pasta fans!!

[grace0418]

Okay, I wanted to tell you all about the amazing dinner we just had. I just found something that is going to change my life, I swear. My husband is severely carb restricted due to his diabetes. I am reducing my carbs in order to lose weight. So one of our favorite dinners, spaghetti with homemade sauce, seemed pretty much out of the question for the time being. The calorie and carb count on pasta is just too huge, ya know?

Well over the weekend we were at an Asian grocery (my husband is Asian so we go there quite often for ingredients) when we ran across an item called Tofu Shirataki. It is essentially noodles made from tofu and a kind of yam. We got very excited and bought 2 bags of the fettucini style and two bags of the spaghetti style. Tonight we tried the spaghetti style. I made a very simple tomato basil sauce with some veggie crumbles for a satisfying meaty texture to go along with it. Folks, can I just say that this stuff ROCKS!? OH. MY. MAUD!!!! A hearty portion of these noodles is just 40 calories, 1g of fat and 6g of carbs. A similar sized portion of spaghetti noodles would be 420 calories and goodness knows how many carbs!!!!!

I was a little worried about them at first because when I took them out of the bag (they're fully cooked and floating in water) they had a bit of an odd aroma. But I rinsed them in cold water and warmed them up with a little garlic and fresh basil and there was no weird taste or anything. The texture is pretty great, too. These will be great for Asian noodle dishes and soup as well.

I'm just so excited to have pasta back in my life. It's one of my favorite things in the world and now I can eat it again! Woo-hoo!

*Grace does a happy dance*

So, anyway, if you have an Asian grocery around you, look for House Foods brand Tofu Shirataki and give it a try. Don't be discouraged by the way it smells coming out of the package. Once you rinse it and put whatever you're going to put on it, there is no problem.

[Flaxbee]

1. sounds really good! I loooove pasta, but my husband

tries to avoid it, well, we both do now that my metabolism has slowed b/c neither one of us likes pasta rolls around our bellies.

I'm curious how it would be with simple olive oil, garlic and some parmesan cheese? One of my favorite things in life is pasta with parmesan and a little butter... if these could carry something as simple as that, I'd be in heaven.

Thanks for the tip!

[grace0418]

8. Once you rinse it and heat it you will be fine. Especially if you

are using good quality olive oil and lots of garlic. Anything aromatic like that will overtake any lingering scent from the tofu. For less than a 10th of the calories and carbs, I think it's worth trying anyway. I will probably be trying that preparation soon as well, it's also one of my favorites. Sometimes I add a few kalamata olives, chopped basil, and chunks of chicken breast as well. YUM!

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. Natural Food Stores (like Whole Foods) sell it too. nt

[Floogeldy]

3. Um . . . where did that smell come from?

:smoke:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. Tofu has a slight odor, but after you rinse & cook it, it goes away. nt

[grace0418]

9. It's not a *bad* smell, mind you. Tofu just has an earthy, almost

mushroomy scent to it. If you were going to use it in an Asian dish you wouldn't even think twice about it. But with Italian-style sauce, you'll want to rinse it thoroughly and it goes away, like haruka said.

I just wanted to make sure people weren't freaked out when they first opened the package.

[elvisbear]

5. Sounds excellent, I'll have to try it. Thanks.

[Broken_Hero]

6. sounds very good...:) nt

[bluethruandthru]

7. Thanks for the tip!

I've been using brown rice pasta for the last couple of years (South Beach Diet). It has a great taste and texture - unlike whole wheat pasta (IMO)....but the calories were still pretty high and so were the carbs.
I've very excited to try Shirataki! Thanks!

[TommyO]

10. I need to hunt these down locally!

My recent bloodtests showed my fasting blood sugar at the high end of normal, so my doc recommended limiting my pasta, bread, and other "bad" carb intake. This sounds like it would be a great way to get my spaghetti fix in once in a while.

[Bridget Burke]

11. Congratulations!

I have no particular need to reduce my own carb intake, but nobody should have to face Life Without Pasta.

[grace0418]

12. So true. One application I could imagine for those who don't

need to count carbs is soup. If you like noodle soup but hate the way the noodles get all bloated and gross when you make it at home, these tofu noodles would be perfect. They come packed in water so I don't think they'll soak up liquid the same way in soup that regular pasta does. I don't know that for a fact, but will be trying it soon.

Anyway, thanks for your encouragement. Life Without Pasta would indeed be one barely worth living. :hi: