Lunch Time - Apple, Berries and Feta Salad + Pasta With Sausage Review

Finally allergies seem to have had it's way with me and is now releasing me from the death embrace. I LOVE spring and warm weather, but the coughing, sneezing etc I can do without!

Lunch time eats: Left-overs - a bit of poor planning saw me with 2 starving kids home after their 2-hour swim practice around 7:30 PM with nothing to eat. Well, trusty macaroni + pasta sauce + some left-over sausages = delicious dinner (or so they said) and some pretty decent left-overs. I could eat sausage for DAYS, so I made a salad to help curb the cravings, which is why I eat a salad almost every day.

Apple, Berries and Feta Salad - Green leaf lettuce (my favorite kind) + apple slices + fresh strawberries + dried cranberries + Athenos Low-fat Feta Cheese. Delicious - I missed cheese in my salads! The salad dressing is still Wish-Bone Italian, which is just about finished now ... time to try something new.

Hiding in the background is an Odwalla Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar, which I saved for a snack later on during the day. I'm reviewing nutrition/ snack bars in the next few days, so I grabbed a bunch from the store to try.

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Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Blend Pasta (Thin Spaghetti) Review

Switching to whole wheat pasta has been one of the easiest "whole wheat" transitions I've gotten my family to make. And one of the products that's helped tremendously is Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Blend Pasta (Thin Spaghetti).

NUTRITION FACTS
Serving Size: 2 ounces
Calories: 180
Total Fat: 2 grams, 3%
Saturated Fat: 0%
Sodium: 0%
Carbohydrates: 41 grams
Fiber: 6 grams, 26%
Sugars: 0 grams
Protein: 7 grams

Spaghetti is one of my go-to "I don't have time to cook" meals - in 30 minutes, I can easily have a healthy, hearty meal prepared. With Ronzoni Healthy Harvest WHole Wheat Blend, there is no off taste, and the star of the show is the sauce - as it should be. I've never made my own sauce, and typically opt for store bought - but one day ... maybe.

A 2 ounce serving provides 180 calories, 2 grams of total fat, 6 grams of fiber (26% of the daily value), no sugars and 7 grams of protein. That's the same amount of calories and a little more total fat than De Cecco Whole Wheat Spaghetti and Luigi Vitelli Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti, but De Cecco has 1 more gram of fiber and protein.

The ingredients are durum whole wheat flour & semolina blend, whole flaxseed meal, wheat fiber, thiamin mononitrate, niacin, riboflavin, iron (ferrous sulfate), folic acid. I bought a 16 ounce box at the grocery store for $1.67 and it's totally worth it.

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