Do You Believe in Miracles?

Fellow eaters may consider a 0 calorie food a miracle. I kind of do, although in my dreams we’re talking pizza, cookies, ice cream or donuts….

MMmmm donuts.

…but I digress.

I decided it was time to put the famous (or is it infamous) Skinny Noodles to the test. I’ve eaten them a few times specifically to review, but never really got around to posting. Mostly because I wasn’t sure how to approach the controversy of it all.

On one hand, a 0 calorie food intrigues me, not because I think I can eat as much of it as I want or use it to reduce my calories to unsafe amounts, but because I believe in "bulking." It was something I learned to do way back in my Weight Watchers days.

As I say in this post I wrote FIVE YEARS AGO, (Holy Shnikes!) I do things like bulk up my chili with zucchini, add fresh fruit to my cereal and my burgers looked more like a salad then anything else. This is "the Volumetric" way of eating and I do it pretty intuitively anymore.

On the other hand, I tend to be suspicious (VERY suspicious) of any food that calls itself "skinny" or "a miracle" and, well, contains 0 calories.

What the heck is it made of?

Good question!

Besides water the main ingredient is Konnyaku Yam Flour (Glucomannan)

Apparently Konnyaku Yam (also know as konjak, konjaku, or konnyaku potato) is cultivated in Japan and looks like this…

Puurty.

(Thanks to PseudoGil for the image.)

It’s a root they grind up, turn to flour and make noodles out of. How is that any different then grinding up wheat and making pasta?

For some reason this made me feel a little better. I decided to give it another go last night. Join me on my Skinny Noodle adventure!

First, I cut open the bag and poured the noodles in a fine strainer.

I didn’t notice the "fishy" smell at first, but when you stick your nose right over them there is a distinct odor of seafood. It reminded me of what boiling shrimp or a pile of shrimp shells smell like.

It didn’t bother me much, I just rinsed them and separated the noodles.

They definitely have a gel like texture.

This is when the husband came in and asked what I was doing. When I told him he made his typical grossed out face. I missed it and only got this blur of a smile.

I poured the noodles on a clean kitchen towel to soak up some of the additional water.

Since the noodles have basically no nutritional value I deiced to add some kale in the mix. It’s also super low in calories BUT serves as a nutritional power house. According to WebMD, one cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.

I heated a skillet over medium-high heat, sprayed it with non-stick cooking spray and add about a cup of kale.

Toss it for a a minute with 2 tablespoons of water and a pinch of salt and –BAM–

cooked kale.

I added the skinny noodles and tossed it without the kale over the heat until the noodles didn’t stick together as much. About 2 minutes.

The kale got a little crispy and the noodles were warmed through.

The kale and the noodles looked so pretty, this is when I realized I probably could have just sautéed them in a little olive oil and garlic and been done.

But I had homemade sauce and shredded Parmesan cheese!

I have to say, the result was delicious!

I mean, it’s not traditional pasta by any means. The texture is more gel like, but it’s filling, and it gives you that spaghetti mouth feel. At the end of the day, it’s a noodle. It tastes like what ever you put on it. That’s what noodles do.

I don’t think I’d eat it all the time but it makes a great pantry item. Especially for those bottomless pit days when nothing fills you up and you’ve already went way overboard in the food department. Not that I ever do that or anything.

Ok, I’m ready to hear it all in the comments. Thoughts on the noodles? Hate? Love? Curious? Never tried? Lay it on me. I’m sure some of you have pretty strong opinions.

Note: Although I have purchased other brands in the past out of curiosity, Genki USA, Inc. sent me this sample bag back in May of this year. They did not compensate me in any way for writing this post. All opinions expressed are my own. If you are interested in trying Skinny Noodles click here to order them off amazon and I will make a small percentage of the sale.

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