South Beach Diet Spaghetti
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Time
prep 1:00
total 2:00
Ingredients
Sauce
| 2 tsp. | olive oil | | 1/2 | onion, chopped | | 2 to 3 | celery ribs, chopped | | 3 cloves | garlic, minced | | 1/2 | green or | | red pepper, chopped | | 1/2 | jalapeno, minced (optional) | | 3 tbsp. | chopped cilantro | | 1 tsp. | oregano | | 1/2 to 1 tsp. | red pepper flakes | | 1 can | (28 oz.) whole tomatoes (make sure no sugar added) | | 1 can | (28 oz.) chunky tomato sauce (no sugar added) | | 1/2 can | tomato paste | | 1/2 cup | water |
Meatballs
| 1 tsp. | olive oil | | 1 lb. | 93% lean ground beef | | 1/4 cup | wheat bran | | 1 | egg | | 1/2 cup | lowfat shredded mozarrella cheese | | 1/2 tsp. | black pepper | | 2 tbsp. | parsley flakes or | | cilantro |
Noodles
| 100% Whole Wheat Spaghetti noodles or | | 1 | lg. spaghetti squash |
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Instructions
Sauce:
Saute onion, celery, green pepper until tender in olive oil in bottom of large sauce pan. Add garlic, chopped cilantro, jalapeno, oregano, red pepper flakes, saute another minute or so. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce, paste, water to vegetables and spices. Bring to a slight boil and then turn down to simmer while preparing meatballs.
Meatballs:
Preheat oven to 350°F (325°F for convection oven).
In a medium mixing bowl, put ground beef, egg, cheese, bran and pepper. Put on clean rubber gloves and mix ingredients together well with your hands. Form into meatballs (should make 8). Coat frypan with olive oil and heat to medium-med. high. Add meatballs to pan and brown on all sides (they will still be uncooked on inside. Put meatballs into a covered casserole dish. Add the sauce (you may only need half, depending on the size of your casserole dish. You can save the other half for freezing or leftovers). Cover and place in oven for 1 hour to several hours.
Before dinnertime, bring a pot of water to boil, and cook the whole wheat noodles according to package directions (around 8 minutes). If using Spaghetti Squash, split in half length wise and bake in oven face down on an oiled cookie sheet (for 40 minutes at 350°F).
Serve noodles or squash (remove seeds, scrape inside of squash with a fork, to make spaghetti strings, throw away skin) with sauce and one or two meatballs on top.
The sauce and meatballs freeze well, so double the recipe and plan leftovers for later in the month!
Author's Comments
On Phase three (the maintenance phase) of the diet, we can reintroduce 100% whole wheat pasta to our menus. I have chosen to also make a simple sauce from scratch, as most store-bought sauces have added sugar. Try this--the few extra minutes are well worth it!
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