un potpourri

A few random, unconnected thoughts.
1. Substitute whole-wheat pasta or spaghetti squash for your regular pasta. Spaghetti squash is very low in calories and it stands up well to almost any kind of sauce. Wheat pasta has much more fiber.
2. Double the veggies. The traditional American plate is 1/2 protein, 1/4+ carbs/starch and 1/4- vegetables. Flip those: Half the veggies, 1/4 protein and 1/4 carbs/starch.
3. Substitute soymilk for cream and milk.
4. Use tofu in place of meat in a stir fry.
5. If I make a cream sauce (using low-fay cream cheese and soymilk), I serve it with steamed spinach instead of pasta.
I've been experimenting with nonmeat recipes, so I picked up "Jean Hewitt's International Meatless Cookbook." Hewitt was a food editor at the NYT, decades before the Frank Bruni era. The cookbook at first made me laugh: "Over 300 Delicious Recipes, Including Many for Fish and Chicken," it boasted. Well, technically, chicken is poultry, but...
In 1980, the recipes she offered truly were exotic; in 2007, they're simple, international dishes. Some of them are very old-school but full of potential (vegetable pate); others are more obscure (harira, Moroccan chickpea and lentil soup). There are so many more I want to try: garlic soup from Spain; curried eggs and masala potatoes from India; dilled carrot salad from France. Because I live alone, I only cook a few times a week. The rest of the time, I eat the leftovers. It makes for less work but sometimes a bit of monotony.