salad – Sweat, Love, & Macros

Macro Friendly Pasta Salad

Macro Friendly Pasta Salad that only requires 4 ingredients! Perfect side dish to bring to any party or super simple dish to make for a meal prep! Shown above is a serving of the pasta salad which comes out to 128g in weight and 162 calories 6P/27C/3F. The big thing that can make pasta salad have not the friendliest macros is that they can be high in fat from a large amount of oil based dressings or high fat additions like cheese, avocado, and olives. Since pasta salad is typically a party food/side and since most parties will already have foods/treats that are higher in fats then I thought having a lighter and easy pasta salad could be a great recipe to have!

I kept this pasta salad super simple, but you can definitely add in more veggies to make it MORE nutrient dense! I added sautéed spinach to it here and loved it! And since this recipe is so low in fat you can have the easy option to add in those other fats without worrying about overdoing it on the fat macros for this dish 🤗

I LOVE these Wacky Mac Veggie Spirals! Easy to make and packed with nutrient dense ingredients!

I also added a 10 oz container of grape tomatoes which I sliced with this cool trick I saw on the Food Network! You simply put a bunch of your tomatoes between two plates and then slide a knife between the plates to cut the tomatoes!

Saves A BUNCH OF TIME as opposed to slicing them individually!

Remember how I was mentioning that a lot of pasta salads are higher in fat because of their dressings? Well here’s my solution! I still used a delicious high fat Roasted Tomato, Parmesan, & Basil Dressing BUT I kept it in moderation by only using 4 tbsp(60g) (while most pasta salad recipes say to use an entire bottle of Italian dressing) and mixed it with 75g Nonfat Greek Yogurt, salt, and a bit of water. This let me have that great taste without overdoing it on the calories!

I added in teaspoons of water as I whisked it to check that I was getting a good dressing consistency. It ended up being probably 1.5 tbsp of water but this can vary depending on the greek yogurt and salad dressing you mix it with.

Last step is to toss the pasta and tomatoes in the sauce and enjoy!

I figured out that a serving was 128g by weighing my container before adding anything (500g) and then weighing it again after I added everything (1785g) and subtracting those amounts to make the total weight of the pasta salad 1285g. Then I just divided that by 10 to say that it makes 10 servings at 128g each.

Macros per serving:

Ingredient List:

Cheesy Chicken Pasta & Side Salad

Absolutely LOVE this meal! Not only is this meal ultra yummy but it follows my favorite motto: Eat better! Not less!

Here’s what I mean: Going on a diet or trying to eat healthier can seem overwhelming & restricting. I think it’s assumed that in order to lose weight or get healthier you have to eat teeny tiny portions, but that’s not the case. It comes back to needing to consume fewer calories, & nutrient dense foods tend to be low in calories but high in volume. So the more nutrient dense a food is then the larger portion you can probably consume of it without going over your calorie goal. While the less nutrient dense foods (sugar, fried foods, etc.) tend to be higher in calories, so it’s better to consume them in smaller portions.

On my plate I have an ENTIRE bag of mixed greens (I normally have a bag a day), why? Because they are packed with viatmins A(180%) & C(120%) and minerals calcium (12%) & iron (40%), and they have a good amount of fiber (4g). And while they are packed with nutrients, they are extremely low in calories, & entire bag of greens is normally 30-40 kcal! So why not just eat the whole bag! It makes my lunch bigger & makes me feel fuller for less calories.

I also have on my plate 139g of zucchini lentil pasta (half a bag of the cheddar sauce flavor from Birds Eye), this pasta comes out to 22g of carbs , while 139g of regular penne pasta comes out to about 47g of carbs. I’m able to enjoy double the amount of pasta by choosing an option made mostly from veggies & grains that are lower in calories. .

I thoroughly enjoy eating this way (most of the time) because the more food I get to consume, the more bites I get to take, & the longer it takes me to eat, I think plays a big role on staying fuller longer even though this meal is pretty low calorie. It can be relatively easy to really overdo it on calories when it comes to foods that are low in nutrients but small & quick to eat: candy, chips, etc. And while I believe in flexible dieting so I’ll enjoy those less nutrient dense foods, it will be in proper portions that keep my health & calories in check👌💪

*Meal macros are also accounting for 20g Bolthouse Farms Creamy Roasted Garlic dressing & 4 oz chicken breast👌🙌😋

Easy Cheesy Low Carb Pizza with Warm Salad

Three ingredients to make this dynamite meal! First is the 4 carb pizza from Real Good Foods where they have made CHICKEN THE CRUST 😍 easy & tasty way to get in some protein and fat macros!

The other ingredients for this meal is a Mann’s Southwest Chipotle Nourish Bowl that comes with cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, sweet potatoes, black beans, chipotle corn salsa & shredded cheddar cheese 😋🙌 and my last ingredient is Steam in Bag Sweet Potatoes from Archer Farms 🍠

Such an easy nutrient packed meal that can all be cooked in a microwave and then easily assembled 😉🤗

Macros: 493 kcal 37P/49C/18F