Did you see this article in the paper on Sunday? I was thinking about making meatballs and pasta for this week's meatball recipe, and so it immediately caught my attention. After reading this, I measured out plates -our small ones are 8-inch plates, and the ones we normally use for dinner are 10-inch plates. According to this article then, my serving of meatballs and pasta that I had for dinner last night (about 1 1/2 c. pasta, 1 1/2 c. sauce, and 3-4 meatballs) was between 700-800 calories. I will say, that when I diet (or overeat), I know its simple math -if you are losing (or gaining) weight, then you are eating less (or more) calories than your body needs to maintain. It's not complicated -though it's not necessarily easy or fun to reduce oneself in size. I have found counting calories to be the only way to keep myself honest -and to be successful with weight loss or for maintaining a healthy weight. Watching portion sizes and using a modest sized plate are excellent tools when watching your calories. I eat everything I want -and I love to eat just about everything- I just try and not eat too much of it!
Remember the meatballs I froze when I made the meatball sandwiches last week? Well, there the little bag of them was waiting in our freezer just waiting to be meatballs and pasta. Meatballs and spaghetti is the classic (remember Lady and the Tramp?), but when I went to the pasta drawer, there was only a 1/3 of a pound of spaghetti in the box (which I promptly spilled into the drawer), so I used a box of mini penne instead.
I sauteed garlic, onion, celery (with some leaf attached), grated carrot, and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil, before adding a can each of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes to a can of commercial spaghetti sauce, and a good sprinkle of Italian Seasoning. I added the meatballs to the sauce and served it forth. My husband and daughter (with their Italian genes) are always happy to be served any type of pasta. With meatballs and tomato sauce, it just makes it that much more cheerful.
