Sub please

After doing "the diet" recently, I came upon some great food substitutions. Let's just say I did a bit-o-damage over the holidays and need to tighten up the eating discipline for a little while here.

I realize these aren't truly the "same" as the real deal. I can't stand when people say that eating a carrot totally satisfied their craving for a Snickers. Come on now.

However, if you're intent on cutting certain things out, wouldn't it be fun to have a good fake?

Personally, my biggest offender/temptation is carbs. Here are two of my favorite subs so far, which happen to both be carb cutters...has anyone ever tried these before? Do you have any others that I can try?



#1 - Cooked Spaghetti Squash for Pasta (when I'm bucklin' down on the diet, I don't eat spaghetti...now I can). Pop a whole spaghetti squash in the crockpot (poke it several times with a fork), put in 2 cups of water. Cook on the low setting for 8-9 hours.



1 cup cooked spaghetti squash - 42 calories, 0g fat, 10g carbs, 4g sugars, 1g protein

versus

1 cup cooked whole wheat spaghetti - 174 calories, 1 g fat, 37g carbs, 1g sugars, 7g protein

With homemade sauce and turkey meatballs...delish.

#2 - Cooked, Mashed Cauliflower for Mashed Potatoes (don't get me wrong...I LOVE mashed potatoes. But let's not fool ourselves...they're not the most diet friendly food and they're loaded with carbs).

1 cup Cauliflower - 30 calories, 0g fat, 6 carbs, 2 sugar, 2 protein

versus

1 cup mashed potatoes (prepared with 1 tbl smart balance, 2 tbl half and half and 5 small yukon gold potatoes = 4 one cup servings) - one serving = 151 calories, 2.5g fat, 32 g carbs, 0 g protein