Nutrition Gurus: Is the spinach (green) pasta any healthier?

[sste]

We are moving to white pasta/rice as only an occasional special dinner thing.

I have been using alot of whole wheat pasta and we are OK with it but we don't love the taste, even after several months for our taste buds to adjust.

Our family does, however, love spinach fettucine and the like. Also we like the tri-colored veggie pastas. Are those any healthier? Or are they just white pasta with a bit of powder thrown in and no real nutritional gain?

[brittone2]

I once read years and years ago that there's like a tsp. of spinach in a whole bag. I'm not sure if that's true but it would not surprise me.

eta: Have you tried bionature pasta? We don't do pasta (kids have it rarely) but when we used whole wheat that was our fav.

[crl]

I don't know about the spinach pasta. I always thought it was really just color? Have you tried the Barilla Plus pasta? We use TJ's whole wheat now but before I figured out my boys would eat that, I used Barilla Plus and they couldn't even tell the difference.

Catherine

[wellyes]

No, it's just a trace amount.

Barilla makes a line of pasta that are 1 full serving of veggies per serving, and it's pretty tasty. But I've only seen mini versions of ziti / rotini / wheels etc - very kid oriented.

[crl]

No, it's just a trace amount.

Barilla makes a line of pasta that are 1 full serving of veggies per serving, and it's pretty tasty. But I've only seen mini versions of ziti / rotini / wheels etc - very kid oriented.

Yeah, that's the Barilla Plus. They do make a spaghetti too.

Catherine

[sste]

Thanks everyone. We have tried barilla plus. Maybe I just need more time to adapt. It all tastes faintly cardboard-y to me! I am going to try bionature too - - thanks for the recs.

[lucybabymamma]

We like the Barilla Plus, too, and the whole wheat pasta is not our fav either, but if you get the angel hair, we found it's a bit better:)

[wellyes]

The one I was mentioning is Barilla Piccolini, not Barilla Plus. It doesn't have that trademark whole wheat chewiness. I love the wheels made with zucchini and spinach - I add some butter, cheese, basil and peas. Yum.

[Globetrotter]

We started eating Trader Joes high fiber penne and spaghetti. It's higher in fiber than whole wheat and it tastes like white! I serve this to their friends all the time now (kids who wouldn't eat whole grain). My kids will eat both, but I thought this was a good option since it's higher in fiber than whole wheat.

[sste]

Oh, haven't tried piccolini. Thanks!

Also will check out TJs - - I have tried alot of their pastas but not sure about high fiber. I think I tried all the brown rice pastas there recently and those were milder in flavor but we eat a fair amount of brown rice anyway.

[anamika]

Thanks everyone. We have tried barilla plus. Maybe I just need more time to adapt. It all tastes faintly cardboard-y to me! I am going to try bionature too - - thanks for the recs.

We just buy the bulk WW pasta from Costco. It took some time but now I am really used to the taste. So much so that I ate white pasta by mistake and thought the flavor was - interesting. Not better just different.

[smilequeen]

It took a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time for me to adjust to whole wheat pasta. My kids have always eaten it. The key at first was the tastiest sauce you can buy.