"American Chop Suey" aka Nannie Sketti

 I first posted this recipe 20 years ago. I cannot believe it's been 20 years! It's been a staple in my family since before I was born. I've renamed it Nannie Sketti in honor of my mother, whom my children called Nannie. She made it consistently throughout my life until I moved out and started making it myself. My sister also makes it, and I'm sure she makes it her own way just like I've adapted my mother's recipe to fit our tastes. I hope you enjoy it!

American Chop Suey

• 1 lb ground beef 
• 2 28 oz cans whole tomatoes
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 lg onion, chopped
• 1-2 Tb. oil
• garlic salt
• onion powder
• salt & pepper
• 1 lb spaghetti or angel hair

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In a tablespoon or two of oil, brown the onions. Add the hamburger and brown. I typically sprinkle the garlic salt & onion powder over the meat/onion mixture, enough to coat without drowning.

Once the hamburger is cooked through, hand crush the tomatoes and add the juice to the pot. Add 1-1/2 - 2 cans of water. Again sprinkle the garlic salt & onion powder across the pot, add salt & pepper. Simmer while the spaghetti cooks. The longer you simmer, the better. Top it off with your favorite cheese!

Tomato & Basil Rotini with Chicken

Tomato & Basil Rotini with Chicken

For a detailed reason of why my dishes are appearing on styrofoam plates, click here.

• 1 lb. Mueller’s Whole Wheat Rotini pasta, cooked 
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces  
• 1 package chicken broth powder 
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 lb frozen green beans 
• 1 16oz. package Philadelphia Cookin Crème “Tomato & Basil” 

 

1. Begin by essentially steaming your chicken in a skillet with the broth. This keeps the fat content down considerably, and the broth helps insure you don’t wind up with bland chicken. 
2. Once the chicken is mostly all cooked (all the pieces have turned that white/tan color), add the bag of green beans on top. Cover for 5-10 minutes, while you boil the water for the pasta.
3. Cook the pasta in salted water.  I’ve found that the only way to palate whole wheat pasta is to cook it beyond al dente.
4. Once the pasta is cooked, drain thoroughly, and then return to the pan you cooked it in.  
5. Add dollops of the Cooking Crème throughout the pasta, so that it melts with the heat of the pasta.  Once you’ve added ¾ of the package, add the now cooked chicken and green beans to the pasta pan.
6. Add the rest of the Cookin Crème and toss gently to cover everything.
7. Plate it and finish it off with a nice health shaving of parmesan or mozzarella.
   
   Dinner’s ready!  

Easy replacements would be delicious. I’ve used spinach, broccoli and a host of other vegetables. I’ve also used more than 1 at a time.  There’s more than enough Cookin Crème to cover everything.  We’ve been moving away from using a lot of meat, but I think this would also work with ground turkey, too – or really ANY meat, including maybe some pork or hamburger.  It would also work with NO meat. It’s a very versatile recipe!  Enjoy!  

Quickie Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

I love fast lunches.  Because we home school, we have lunch (and breakfast… and dinner) every single day.  But because we do that, the choices can get pretty boring. This was something I just sort of made up that turned out to be such a crowd pleaser, there was NONE left.  That’s a rare feat in my house.

• Suddenly Salad – Bacon & Ranch flavor
• 1/4 c low-fat sour cream
• 1/4 c Kraft olive oil mayo
• 1 c. leftover chicken, diced

Boil the pasta as directed.  While that’s cooking, mix the seasoning mix that comes with the salad with the sour cream and mayo.  (I’ve tweaked the directions that came with the salad to lower the fat content.)  Once the pasta is cooked, strain it and rinse with cold water. Be sure to drain it thoroughly.  Toss with the seasoning mix and chicken, and you’re done!  This is a great recipe that you can do in the morning and just put in the fridge for later.  15 minutes and you’re done!

It’s also great for “hiding” vegetables in plain site. Although it does come with some veggies, I always toss in more, just for the fun of it (insert evil laugh here). 

Enjoy!

Fridge Scampi

Yet another witty title, eh?

There are no shortage of low-fat shrimp scampi recipes. But if you’re like me and you just, out of the blue, decide that you want to make shrimp scampi, chances are you’ll not have everything that’s called for in the given recipe.  That was the situation when I came up with tonight’s dinner.

Most low fat scampi recipes call for butter, wine, chicken broth, shrimp, parsley, garlic, perhaps some olive oil.   

I had a handful of frozen shrimp (small, size 55-60 cocktail shrimp left over from New Year’s LOL)

I had garlic.

I had grape tomatoes.

I had wilted parsley.

I had no wine.

I had no chicken broth and didn’t feel like mixing any up from the package.

I came up with my own version.

First, I lightly browned 2 cloves of garlic in a pan with about a teaspoon of unsalted butter while I put some water on to boil for angel hair.

Once the garlic was nice & happy, I tossed the tomatoes in – probably 10-15 of them.  They danced around the pan while I finished taking the tails off the defrosted shrimp.   (WHY do they leave them on?!)

Once the tomatoes began to soften, I added the shrimp and and tossed them together with the rest of the pan, trying to make sure everything was coated in the garlic/butter/tomatoey goodness.  Since my shrimp were already precooked, once they were heated, they were done.  I shut the pan off and waited for the angel hair to finish.

Once the pasta was done, I strained it and then drizzled roughly a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil into the same pan I’d boiled the pasta in.  When the pasta was drained thoroughly, I added it back to the pan and tossed to coat with the EVOO.  I then dumped the shrimp/tomato/garlic/butter madness into the same pan as the pasta and again, lightly tossed them together, coating everything with pan juices.  It was beautiful.

 

Enjoy!

4 for $15?

4 15.  That’s Shaw's new “thing” to entice people.  Four meals for under $15.  Not whole meals – 4 servings.  So you can feed your family of 4 for under $15.

Isn’t that big of them!

For $15, I can make 4 FULL dinners.  Because we’ve always had to live rather frugally, this new era that Americans are finding themselves in, the one in which they can’t be hitting MdD’s 4 times a week – is really nothing new to me. 

The trick, really, is to know how to shop.  You don’t buy things based on need. You buy things based on sales.  You stock up on things when they’re on sale, and then you don’t have to pay sometimes double the price when you need them.

This works particularly well with meats, although, obviously, you need a freezer large enough to accommodate good sales. 

Here’s an example:

Yesterday, I bought 1 lb of Butterball ground turkey.  It was on sale for $1.99 – it’s normally $3.99 or higher.

I would typically buy 2 or 3 of them, because I use it quite frequently.  (I didn’t this week because I have no room in my freezer.)

I also bought a pound of egg noodles that were on sale.

I went home and cooked the turkey up, with some salt & pepper.  I combined it with a jar of spaghetti sauce (Spinach & Cheese Florentine is awesome!), boiled the egg noodles, and voila.  I had a meal for way more than 4 people – for way less than $15! 

$1.99 – turkey

$1.99 – sauce

$1.29 – egg noodles

$5.27  - and enough for dinner for 5 and more than enough for lunch the next day for all of us.  So figure it, in total, fed 8 (at least).   $.65 for a meal is much more acceptable to me than $15!

I’ve already noticed that Shaw's also has boneless chicken breast on sale this week.  $1.88/lb is an excellent price, so I will buy 2 or 3 packages of it. 

There are tons of things I can make with boneless chicken breast, so I am not worried that I’ll put it in the freezer and it won’t get used.  In fact, one of the recipes I made with turkey, http://nhmom.blogspot.com/2008/12/turkey-pot-pie-with-corn-bread-stuffing.html, I will just substitute chicken for turkey with.  So figure $5 for the chicken, $1 for the box of stuffing, $1 for the gravy (if I’m feeling lazy and don’t make my own).  I got the pie crust for free with a coupon. 

Simple recipe, and delicious.  WAY less than $15.

What are some of your favorite recipes that are budget conscious?

Chicken Cordon Bleu & Chicken Fregula

Last weekend, I happened to be watching food network when a (new to me) show came on.   Secrets of a Restaurant Chef with Ann Burrell was the show and I enjoyed watching her and made a note to look for a particular side-dish that she’d made called fregula.  Basically, they’re little balls of pasta.  Bigger than a pastene but smaller than ummm… a ravioli LOL  Otherwise known as Isreali couscous, I managed to find it at the health food store in the bulk bin and it was very cheap.  I only bought what was about 1 cup because I didn’t know if we’d like it.   Then it sat in the paper bag for the last week and a half while I thought about how I’d like to make it.  I wasn’t going to make it like her, but haven’t been feeling really inventive in the kitchen as of late. (Read why on my other blog :S)

So this weekend, I was watching food network again and found myself drooling over Tyler Florence’s version of chicken cordon bleu.  I made sure to buy some proscuitto this weekend, and provolone cheese and then all that got thrown in the fridge as well LOL

Finally, I found the enthusiasm to cook tonight, and oh what a deliciouso dinner!  Give yourself some time for this – but believe me, it’s worth the effort.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded out flat.
• 2 slices of prosciutto ham
• 2 slices provolone cheese cut in half
• 2 eggs - scrambled
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup flour

I pounded out the chicken breasts with the flat side of my mallet while it was inside a storage bag.    Once they were all an even thickness, I took a slice of prosciutto and tore it down the center because it was quite thick and I didn’t want it to be overwhelming in the chicken.  I topped the ham with the 1/2 slice of provolone cheese.  I rolled the whole thing up slowly and and then wrapped the chicken in wax paper, keeping it tightly rolled.  Once they were all done, I put them in the freezer for approximately 40 minutes or so.

Once they were in the freezer, I began the preparation for the fregula.

Chicken Fregula

• 1 cup fregula
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil

In a 2 qt. saucepan, I melted the butter and added the olive oil (the olive oil helps  to keep the butter from burning).  To that, I added the onions and garlic and stirred it frequently to keep the garlic from burning.

Once the onions & garlic were softened, I added the fregula and mixed it in to be sure that it was all coated.  I added the 2 cups of chicken broth and brought it to a boil.  I then lowered the heat, covered the pan and simmered it while I began the prep for finishing the chicken. (probably about 20 minutes on low) – the fregula will absorb the broth, so keep an eye on it.

Back to the chicken, I scrambled the eggs into one bowl.  I placed the flour in another bowl.  In the third, I added the panko breadcrumbs, along with salt, pepper and just a sprinkling of  poultry seasoning.

I removed the packages of chicken from the freezer, where they’d stayed nice and cold, and therefore held together very well.  Working quickly, I dipped each chicken breast into the flour, coating it on all sides.  Then I dipped it into the egg and then finally coated it in the bread crumbs. 

In a skillet, I heated a Tbls. of canola oil and placed the breaded chickens into the skillet.  At this point, I don’t know WHY but I had the heat up too high and next thing I knew, I could smell burning breadcrumbs.  Gah!

So I took them out of the frying pan and placed them into an oven pan, put the oven on 425 and cooked them for roughly 30 minuts or so – I had the meat thermometer in them and took them out at 175°. They were moist & delicious! The fregula plumped up with the chicken broth and was just amazing.  (click on the photos for better detail)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turkey Mac & Double Cheddar

Do you ever have something in mind planned for dinner and then when you go to make it, find you don't have a key ingredient?  That's what happened to me this evening.  I'd planned on making the low-carb Mexican casserole for my family for dinner.  At 4pm, which is normally when I go down to make dinner, I found I had no taco seasoning. 

Now of course, I could have scanned the Internet for a solution, but nahhhh, I sat and sulked on twitter for a few minutes.  Then I went back downstairs to figure out what else I could make. 

I had a jar of Ragu Double Cheddar cheese sauce that I'd had forever.  I looked at the back and found a recipe that sounded pretty good - at least, I figured, the kids would probably like it.  The problem was, I had ground turkey already defrosted, and no time to defrost hamburger, so I was going to have to substitute the turkey for the burger it called for.  Eh, who cares, really - I was going to have a salad with some leftover chicken in it from last night's dinner (heh).  What I wound up making, with some of my own tweaks, came out SO GOOD, I didn't have my salad, I had what I'd made for them! LOL

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 lb (or more) ground turkey (7%) - browned and drained
• 3-1/2 cups water (I wound up using closer to 4 cups)
• 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
• 1 jar Ragu® Cheesey Double Cheddar Sauce
• 1/2 - 1 cup sweet peas
• 2-3 tsp (or Tbls)

 

Brown the ground turkey in a skillet.  Drain the grease (I know - there isn't alot) and set turkey aside.  In same pan, bring the water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook for 6 minutes or until tender.  (Mine took closer to 10 minutes and I had to add water to it.)  Do not drain pasta.  Return ground turkey to the pan, add in sauce.  This is when I also threw in the sweet peas.  Blend it all up and heat through.

When I'd dished it up, I spotted the McCormick Smoky Sweet Pepper Seasoning.  I sprinkled it over the pasta & turkey and let it sit for a few minutes or so, to help it dissolve/blend.   Oh MAN did that make a difference!   It really was awesome.

Shrimp & spinach w/angel hair

I literally threw this recipe together this weekend.  It was delicious!

• 2 c. fresh baby spinach
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/4 c. oven roasted tomatoes (recipe below)
• 12 large shrimp
• 4 oz. angel hair spaghetti

Using the oil from the roasted tomatoes, brown the garlic.  Once the garlic is fragrant, add the spinach and begin to wilt it. After the spinach has wilted, add in the tomatoes. Allow the juices from the tomatoes coat the pan, and then add the shrimp. If you’ve bought pre-cooked shrimp, just heat them up and toss with tomatoes & spinach.  Otherwise, cook until the shrimp have turned pink.

When pasta is finished, drain and add pasta to pan and coat. Serves 2.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes:

To roast the tomatoes, I had about 6 tomatoes that were ready to turn. I coated a cookie sheet with a few tablespoons of olive oil. I cut the tomatoes into 6ths (making sure they were about 1/2” at the most) and spread them out on the cookie sheet. I drizzled some more olive oil on them, sprinkled with Italian seasoning and garlic salt. I baked them at 300 degrees for about 90 minutes or so, then shut the oven off and left them in there most of the day. They were EXCELLENT alone, but also perfect for the shrimp thing. :)

Ratatouille - no, not the movie!

LOL My kids & I just saw the movie Ratatouille last week and they were intrigued but the idea of the FOOD ratatouille.  But I KNOW that my oldest does not LIKE most vegetables - my daughter will, on occasion, depending on her mood, either love them or hate them.  BUT I LOVE THEM.  So I figured I'd make it and cash in on the popularity of the movie. 

I looked around the net for an interesting recipe - there's so many variations.  I wound up making my own because I wasn't paying attention LOL  It came out SCRUMPTIOUS and my kids RAVED over it.  My oldest, mr. only likes green beans, asked for 2nds... and 3rds!

 

• 1 medium sized eggplant, peeled and cut into approx. 1" chunks. (I didn't seed it either)
• 2 medium sized zucchini (not peeled), sliced
• 1 medium sized yellow squash (not peeled), sliced
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 green peppers, seeded and chopped (but left in good sized chunks)
• 1 14 oz can tomatoes (with onions)
• 1 beefsteak tomato, quartered and eighth'd? LOL
• 1 tbls. olive oil
• 3 large cloves garlic, sliced

In a pot, I sauteed the onions and garlic.  Once the onions were transluscent, I added the green peppers - covered the pot and let them cook down some.  To that, I added the eggplant & tomatoes and then simmered  it, covered, for about 15 minutes - or perhaps 20.  Finally, I threw in the celery & squashes.  Again, I covered it and let it simmer while I cooked up a pound of angel hair spaghetti, which I served the ratatouille over.  Truly, this was a delicious meal!  It did need some salt, but we added that individually - and it was even better when we added parmesan cheese.  All in all, a BIG success in my house!

Enjoy!

Crockpot Cooking at it's finest

I was feeling pretty uninspired this morning when I was digging around in the new chest freezer we'd bought last month.  I know that in order to keep the food from getting freezer burned, I must use it!  So I reached to the bottom and pulled out a family sized package of chicken thighs.  Hmm... what to do with them?  Again, completely uninspired, I ran them under some hot water just long enough so I could whack them on the sink to break them into 2 chunks small enough to fit into the crock pot.  I sprinkled onion salt and garlic powder liberally, then I opened a 28oz can of diced tomatoes and poured that on top.  I covered it and turned it up to high.

Around noontime, I was looking in the regular freezer and came across some sliced zucchini I'd made before our vacation - to be honest, I can't even really remember how I cooked it - it may have been in Italian dressing, but one can't be too sure.  Eh, that's ok - I tossed the frozen lump of zucchini into the crock pot as well.  About an hour later, it was defrosted enough for me to stir the whole thing up, making sure the zucchini got covered up in tomato'ey goodness.  The aroma in my house is Soooooo Goooood!

In about an hour, I'll go back to the kitchen and stir things up again and also put on a pot of water to boil.  I'll make some sort of pasta (not really sure what I have at the moment) and poof - dinner will be done!  The zucchini is very thinly sliced, so I'm betting it'll fall apart nicely - because my kids don't purposely EAT zucchini, this is a good thing that it falls apart :)

Now, for those of you who aren't too thrilled with chicken thighs, this recipe could easily be accomplished with any other cut of the chicken, just adjust your cooking times for boneless!

Also - if you'd like the chicken to be browned, you could brown it in the frying pan before or spoon the whole thing into a casserole dish when it's done and throw it under the broiler.  Me? I don't mind albino chicken!

Enjoy!

To recap:

10-12 chicken thighs (frozen)
1 28oz can diced tomatoes w/juices
garlic powder
onion salt
sliced zucchini

Yum!

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Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia w/angel hair pasta

In July, hubby & I celebrated our anniversary by ordering dinner to go and having a nice dinner at home without the hassle of trying to keep 3 kids quiet in a restaurant. I decided to order something totally different than my usual prime rib, and decided to go with their Parmesan Encrusted Tilapia, which was served with spaghetti & garlic bread. It was fabulous! Since then, I've been thinking about it and wanting it again, but not wanting to spend the kind of money it requires to feed 5 at the 99 Restaurant.

Today, while futzing around in my freezer trying to figure out what was for dinner, I came across some tilapia that I'd bought recently and put that out to defrost. I had planned on our usual (another recipe for another day), but then at the lats minute, decided to try my hand at the yummy thing that the 99 had done. The results were excellent!

4 tilapia filets, roughly 1 lb.
2/3 c. Progresso Panko Crispy Bread Crumbs, Italian Flavor
1/3 c. Great Value (walmart) brand Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. flour
12 oz. spaghetti, cooked (more or less, depending on how many you're serving)
pasta sauce (my recipe is below)

First off, if you've never used Panko bread crumbs, you simply MUST buy them. They're chunkier than regular bread crumbs and hold up really well to the egg/flour mixture.

So, I always check my fish to make sure there's no bones - so they're wet already. I dipped each one individually in the flour first. Then I dredged them in the EGG MIXTURE (LOL Sorry I left this out originally) and finally, each one individually went into a large freezer storage bag where I'd mixed the bread crumbs and cheese. I shook the bag gently, making sure the fish was completely coated. Onto a foil lined pan sprayed with cooking spray, and into a 425 degree oven it went. Your time may vary, of course, so check to make sure it's done (pick it with a fork - if it is flaky, it's done.)

For the sauce, I was in a bit of a hurry, but rather than use a jar sauce and ruin the flavor of the fish, I went with this quickie recipe:

1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
5 cloves of garlic crushed
several fresh basil leaves, cut into ribbons
garlic powder, salt & pepper to taste

I browned the garlic in the 2 quart sauce pan with some olive oil. Then added the tomatoes, seasonings and let this bubble and cook down while the fish was prepared and cooked. At the same time, I put on the water for the angel hair pasta. Normally, I like a well cooked sauce, but the freshness really went well with the fish. Just as I was taking the fish out of the oven, I tossed the basil into the sauce, stirred it. I served some sauce over both the fish and the pasta and as I said, it was fabulous.

Please let me know if you make this recipe and how you like it. I would suggest using fresh parmesan, as the fake stuff really doesn't have much CHEESE flavor, imo. I will do that the next time. Also, my husband inquired "Where's the mozzarella" because anything that has sauce on it in my house REQUIRES mozzarella too. LOL So that's an option as well. Here was the finished product.

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Lunchtime!

While talking with Elizabeth over at Table for 5 and MomCooks.net, she mentioned she was going to be doing a post about her kids favorite lunchbox lunches. Since my kids are homeschooled, we don't have lunchboxes, but it does open up a bigger avenue for lunches for them. Here is one of their new favorites.

Tuna Macaroni Salad - I know - it's so simple! But we enjoy using different kinds/shapes of macaroni and I enjoy the simplicity of it. Here's our latest combination.



1 - 12 oz. package of Wacky Mac (if you don't have these, they're pasta made with veggies, which gives them their color!)
approximately 2 tbls. finely chopped onion (I used green onion today)
1 carrot, which I first shaved with my vegetable peeler, and then chopped with the knife, basically to hide it from both the kids and myself LOL
1/2 c. light mayo
2 cans chunk white tuna



While the pasta is cooking (approximately 10 minutes), I mix the tuna(drained) and mayo, adding in onion & carrot. Once the pasta is cooked, I rinse it under cold water and drain it well. Then, just toss (gently) with the tuna mixture. IT's really that simple!



Just be careful of these:



Yeah, found that in the can of tuna! Anyway, what's your kids' favorite lunchtime meals?

Turkey Pomodoro

This was FANTASTIC!

Turkey Pomodoro

• 2 Tbs. whole-wheat flour (*see notes below)
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• salt & pepper to taste
• 8 turkey breast cutlets
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• 1/2 c. chicken broth
• 1/2 c. white wine
• 2 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1/2 c. tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. basil
• 1 Tbs. butter

In a large ziplock back, place the flour, garlic powder, salt & pepper. In turn, drop the turkey cutlets into the bag and shake to coat in the flour mixture.

In a frying pan, heat the olive oil over med-high heat. Saute the turkey until lightly browned. Take out of pan and keep warm (I place mine in the oven set on warm).

Add the chicken broth and wine to the pan, deglazing with a whisk. Add the tomatoes, basil & lemon juice to the broth. Bring to a simmer and reduce a bit. When the sauce is almost done (the tomotoes are soft), add the butter and mix into the sauce. Place the cutlets back in and allow them to warm completely. Serve with the sauce on top.

For us, I cooked up a small amount of low-carb (Dreamfield) pasta, and served the turkey over top the pasta, and spooned just about 2 Tbls. of the sauce and it was just perfect. Not too much pasta (I used 1/2 a serving, so 2-1/2 net carbs), and the turkey didn't get lost in the pasta taste. I also served it with some canned green beans (didn't have any fresh). I used fresh basil, which equated to 2 good-sized leaves. For the turkey, I bought 2 turkey tenderloins, and sliced them in half lengthwise & then throughwise (made into quarters) to make cutlets. This would also be GREAT with chicken, and I'll do it with those next time.

I also noticed, as I was putting my whole-wheat flour back, that the soy flour is only 5 net carbs, so that would have cut this recipe carb count drastically, and so I'll try it with that next time as well. Even with that, this had GREAT numbers!

257 cal; 8g fat; 35g protein; 5g carb; 1g dietary fiber; 98mg cholesterol; 353mg sodium.

Italian Tilapia & Pasta

Dawn's Italian Tilapia & Pasta

1 lb. tilapia fillets
1 jar store-brand spaghetti sauce
2 oz. Dreamfield Spaghetti
4 oz. store-brand spaghetti
garlic salt
onion powder
parmesan cheese

On a foil-lined baking dish, I placed the fish fillets and sprinkled them with the garlic salt & onion powder. I then spooned approximately 1-2 Tbls. of pasta sauce over each fillet, put in a 400°F oven for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, I boiled the pans of pasta and cooked them (seperately, of course). On the Dreamfield's, I only about 1-2 tsp. of margerine and then served the fish with that, so my carb count for this was the 5carbs for the pasta, plus approximately 1 carb for the pasta sauce. I then finished it off with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and added a salad. My kids & hubby had the regular spaghetti w/sauce, and we all practically licked our plates! My son, who hates everything, LOVED it (and subsequently ate ALL the leftovers this weekend!).

This is a photo of his dish, but mine was prettier and my salad :)