Chicken Alfredo with Zoodles

Whether you follow a low-carb, low-calorie diet, or just practice portion control, making health swaps is critical to still enjoy your favorite dishes, while sticking to your weight loss goals.

Some of my favorite low-calorie swaps include:

  • Freeze dried fruit instead of dried fruit
  • Flavored water instead of juice
  • Sugar-free pudding instead of traditional pudding
  • Egg whites to replace some whole eggs
  • Cauliflower rice instead of white rice
  • And of course, vegetable noodles instead of wheat noodles!

With noodles made from veggies like zucchini, it’s possible to slash 185 calories per serving! That’s a huge saving in calories that will allow you to turn around and eat a larger portion, or top with some delicious sauces or proteins.

One of my favorite (and quick) dinner ideas is Low Cal Chicken Alfredo.  If you have a spiralizer, first, spiralize some zucchini until you have noodles.  You can also now purchase spiralized zucchini in most produce departments at the grocery store. 

To cook the zucchini noodles, do not boil them. I made this mistake the first time I tried to make zoodles, and it was very wet and over-cooked. Instead, add a little cooking spray to the bottom of a skillet. You can also include a tablespoon of water to cook in, but that is plenty. Add the noodles and stir until the zucchini is slightly wilted. No more than 3-5 minutes.

After your zucchini is soft and hot, add a small amount of pre-made alfredo sauce. The kind you can get by the spaghetti sauce at most stores.  Then, top with rotisserie chicken or any pre-made chicken. Heat the full dish until it’s your desired temperature.

And there you have it!  For 1 huge serving we got 224 calories, 24 grams protein, 9 grams carbs, and 12 grams fat.

The final recipe for that nutrition information was:

  • 200 grams zucchini
  • 1/4 cup alfredo sauce
  • 4 oz. chicken thighs

Let us know if you try it!

Amy Roskelley

 

Recipe provided by Amy Roskelley, a weight loss and nutrition blogger at healthbeet.org. At Health Beet, she writes low-calorie recipes, portion controlled meal ideas, and weight loss strategies.