Crave
I had quite a bit of fun making a lasagna today!
Normally, I never even think about making scrumptiously filling pasta dishes seeing as they don't really fit very nicely into the dreaded food diary... oh wait, I mean my 'healthy lifestyle' which is now a beloved permanent fixture of my life.
Anyway, I have been craving lasagne or some other large plate of pasta just too much. Therefore, I decided to have a go at making a lovingly layered pan of this wonderful Italian delight and seeing how many calories one piece would have. Everything in moderation, right?
Well, I started out trying to just think in my non-math-oriented head about how much one piece would have. I didn't think that was even close to accurate, so I decided to just measure everything I put into the entire batch of cheesy goodness and then divide by the number of pieces (12). I did not cut corners or in any way try to make this a 'diet' or 'low-cal' dish. I just made it the way I normally make it. (Please note... I make it with ground chicken since we do not have good beef here; and I make it with crumbled 'paneer' instead of cottage cheese or ricotta which are also sadly absent from the dairy aisle at my supermarket. Therefore, my figures may or may not apply to your own homemade confections.)
Interestingly, I noted that if I were indeed to sit down and eat the whole pan in one sitting... which I could absolutely do... (no you couldn't you're thinking... but indeed, I could. I can pound down an enormous amount of food without even thinking about it... it is by sheer act of will and human strength -- or God-given strength -- that I can ever actually stop eating once I start)... I would consume 6,132 calories. Whoa! That'd be gaining 2 pounds in just one sitting! Although now that I type that out, gaining two pounds might not be that bad. Ha ha ha just kidding. I will not do that.
But when you divide that by the 12 perfectly square pieces into which I cut the finished masterpiece, it works out to about 511 calories per slice. Not low-cal, that's for sure. However, seeing as I had planned the rest of my eating day around dinner, I was able to 'save' enough calories in the rest of the day to fit this wonderful meal (plus a homemade wheat dinner roll!) into the day, finish it off with 3/4 of a pear, and still make it 2 calories *under* my daily calorie target. Wow! Now that is amazing.
We have lots of lasagna left and so I've started planning how to eat it... I think leftovers will have to be eaten 1/2 a piece at a time because my calories cannot be planned around lasagna for the rest of the week. But 1/2 a piece for lunch with either soup or a salad should be workable.
I'm so happy. I answered my lasagna craving. Mmm tasty. And fun to make and calculate, too.
Here's to more tasty treats to come!
~lk
Normally, I never even think about making scrumptiously filling pasta dishes seeing as they don't really fit very nicely into the dreaded food diary... oh wait, I mean my 'healthy lifestyle' which is now a beloved permanent fixture of my life.
Anyway, I have been craving lasagne or some other large plate of pasta just too much. Therefore, I decided to have a go at making a lovingly layered pan of this wonderful Italian delight and seeing how many calories one piece would have. Everything in moderation, right?
Well, I started out trying to just think in my non-math-oriented head about how much one piece would have. I didn't think that was even close to accurate, so I decided to just measure everything I put into the entire batch of cheesy goodness and then divide by the number of pieces (12). I did not cut corners or in any way try to make this a 'diet' or 'low-cal' dish. I just made it the way I normally make it. (Please note... I make it with ground chicken since we do not have good beef here; and I make it with crumbled 'paneer' instead of cottage cheese or ricotta which are also sadly absent from the dairy aisle at my supermarket. Therefore, my figures may or may not apply to your own homemade confections.)
Interestingly, I noted that if I were indeed to sit down and eat the whole pan in one sitting... which I could absolutely do... (no you couldn't you're thinking... but indeed, I could. I can pound down an enormous amount of food without even thinking about it... it is by sheer act of will and human strength -- or God-given strength -- that I can ever actually stop eating once I start)... I would consume 6,132 calories. Whoa! That'd be gaining 2 pounds in just one sitting! Although now that I type that out, gaining two pounds might not be that bad. Ha ha ha just kidding. I will not do that.
But when you divide that by the 12 perfectly square pieces into which I cut the finished masterpiece, it works out to about 511 calories per slice. Not low-cal, that's for sure. However, seeing as I had planned the rest of my eating day around dinner, I was able to 'save' enough calories in the rest of the day to fit this wonderful meal (plus a homemade wheat dinner roll!) into the day, finish it off with 3/4 of a pear, and still make it 2 calories *under* my daily calorie target. Wow! Now that is amazing.
We have lots of lasagna left and so I've started planning how to eat it... I think leftovers will have to be eaten 1/2 a piece at a time because my calories cannot be planned around lasagna for the rest of the week. But 1/2 a piece for lunch with either soup or a salad should be workable.
I'm so happy. I answered my lasagna craving. Mmm tasty. And fun to make and calculate, too.
Here's to more tasty treats to come!
~lk
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