Comments on: Healthy and Delicious: Red Pepper Alfredo

By: Sarah Caron

Sarah Caron — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 03:21:53 +0000

Kara, You piqued my interest, so I did the same thing at SparkRecipes.com. 407 calories there. There are variations in several of these ingredients that could cause the caloric fluctuations. For instance, the Romano cheese is freshly grated and measured in the recipe by cups. For an accurate reading on calories, it would have to be ounces — when I grate with my microplane, it’s far lighter and fluffier than the grated I would purchase at a store. Likewise, the recipe didn’t specify what type of milk to use. We keep low-fat in the house, so that’s what I wrote when I was typing the recipe. If I’d used skim, the calorie count would be lower (and roughly what the book said).

There is no perfect system to doing this. Low-cal, low-fat, low-carb, etc — all have their pros and cons. And this recipe is certainly not something to eat nightly, but it’s a nice way to indulge without totally overeating. And if this cookbook gets my husband into cooking and trying new things (like the roasted red peppers, which he turns his nose up to usually), then I am okay with giving it a shot.

Thanks for reading! And for making me think more about this.

By: Kara

Kara — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 02:31:15 +0000

Um .. there is NO way that this is 390 cals per serving. I just put all the ingredients into the recipe maker at livestrong.com and it came up with 1908 calories for the whole recipe, which is 477 per serving. Plus

Add to that, the recipe may be low cal, but low cal isn’t always the healthiest option. That’s why I HATE the “eat this not that” series of books. They focus exclusively on calories and totally ignore the fact that a low calorie meal that is entirely made of up carbs and saturated fats is NOT the better option.

Sorry, don’t mean to be a grump. I really do loathe this series of books for the absolutely horrible (and I believe dangerously ignorant) information they provide.

By: Sarah Caron

Sarah Caron — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:31:42 +0000

Mmm. I adore sundried tomato pesto! Sounds delish, Kate.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:40:38 +0000

I have that book, but haven’t used it yet. I’ll have to give it a closer look. We had red pasta last night too, using a sundried tomato pesto I made which is probably far less healthy.

By: Sarah Caron

Sarah Caron — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:24:30 +0000

Maryea, you know, I think the calories are kept down mostly because although it has butter and milk and half and half and cheese, it’s only a little of each — and divide it four ways and it’s even less. The roasted red peppers really add a lot to this dish too.

By: Maryea {Happy Healthy Mama}

Maryea {Happy Healthy Mama} — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:20:18 +0000

Wow, with that ingredient list I wouldn’t have guessed it was low-cal, either. I guess it’s all about portion size, right? Looks delicious!