How to Make Healthier Spaghetti

When my husband and I first met, he told me didn't eat vegetables. Well, that was a challenge for me, an almost-vegetarian at the time, but it motivated to find ways that he would be willing to eat vegetables in a new way that he could accept.

His favourite food was spaghetti, and like most people, he cooked it with a pound of hamburger and a can of sauce poured onto the pasta. Well, I gradually added little pieces of vegetables, and he was very surprised to find that he likes, and actually asks for this new healthier form of spaghetti.

1. Using your usual store-bought or home-made spaghetti sauce, experiment with different vegetables to add to your sauce. Just use whatever you have in your fridge, and don't worry if it's always the same. Some that I like to put in are: onions, mushrooms, bell peppers (red, yellow, or green, depending on your preference), garlic and celery. I also like adding cauliflower cut into very tiny pieces.

2. Chop up these vegetables into very small pieces. This is the key to making it palatable for the meat-lovers in your family. This allows the vegetable pieces to cook fully, and integrate into the sauce. The vegetables give your spaghetti a wonderful texture that is missing in plain-Jane spaghetti with just tomato sauce and meat.

4. Saute the vegetables first, before you do the meat. This allows them to cook more fully, and the flavours will be less pungent. Saute until almost done. Then add meat to the pan, and keep stirring. The vegetables will give the meat a wonderful flavour.

5. Add herbs. I use Italian Seasoning. These are also delicious in spaghetti: thyme, basil, oregano, majoram, garlic powder. The enhanced flavour makes it more delicious, and therfore more appealing to any non-vege eaters.

5. Use whole wheat spaghetti. This healthier version of spaghetti has much more fibre, and therefore less those of those fat-adding simple carbs. Be careful, though, because it will fill you up!

Voila, you have much healthier spaghetti, and soon your family members that "don't eat vegetables" will be having seconds! Four years after my husband and I met, he loves my healthy cooking, and no longer has the digestion problems he used to have. I encourage you to try vamping up your spaghetti today!