Monday, June 3, 2013

Mini Farfalle with Roasted Peppers, Onions, Feta, and Mint

Its been over three months since I last made Mini Farfalle with Roasted Peppers, Onions, Feta and Mint.    I really enjoyed this dish last time I made it and I think it might have been even better tonight.  My wife and I both enjoyed dinner and we will be having more of this as left overs tomorrow night.

Photo: John Autry; Styling: Leigh Ann Ross

Since the last time I made this dish, I have started a diet in attempt to lose 30 pounds and I am over half way to my goal.   I had a nice, healthy, low calorie, delicious lunch packed for myself today and then I walked out of the house without my lunch!   I ended up going out for lunch with some guys from the office.  

We went to an Indian Buffet called Saffron in downtown San Carlos.   This place always presents a variety of options at the buffet and I love the food.   I could easily eat three platefuls of food and dessert, but since I am on a diet, I limited myself to one very modest plate of food and no dessert.   But even a plateful of Butter Chicken, Tandoori Chicken,  Yogurt Chicken, Rice, and some other stuff the name of which I don't remember, is probably pushing 800 calories, maybe more.   And the amount of salt used in the chicken recipes has got to be way over my sodium budget.   Plus, i could not pass up the naan and had to have at least one piece.   I really enjoyed the lunch, but decided I better go for something vegetarian for dinner to make up for my high calorie, high chicken lunch!



Back to the Farfalle... the Cooking Light recipe says this dish is 453 calories per serving.  I tracked and weighed everything that went into this dish; I used the same amounts used in the recipe; and the only change I made was that I used fat-free feta instead of regular feta cheese.   I came up with 362 calories per serving assuming the recipe makes four servings and I did not eat a full serving for dinner.   So, my dinner was only about 272 calories and satisfying.  

After dinner, I swam laps at the health club and swam about 3/4 of a mile and worked off some more of that high calorie lunch.   At the end of the day, assuming I had a 1,000 calorie lunch, I still came in under my daily calorie budget.  


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