Cook Yourself Thin Recipe Review: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Like many women, having a second child means many things. One: I have less time for myself. Two: Because of one, I take less care of myself. And three: my body isn't what it was before kids. Because of these factors, I have started trying to find little cheats and short cuts. Workouts that I can do in less time and get better results, ways to sneak in exercise into daily activities (even though chasing after a toddler is plenty) and better meals. The latter has led me to become a fan of the show Cook Yourself Thin It shows how to cook the foods you love and cook them healthier, but keep the taste. Let's face it, if it doesn't taste good you aren't going to eat it.
I liked what they were doing, but didn't believe the women that came on saying they loved the food and it tasted better than the original, unhealthy version. Really, were they going to say "wow, that tastes like poo" on the show? I was ready to go out and buy the book when I glanced over at my shelf of recipe books. Most of us have this shelf. The shelf of books with recipes that looked so good and so easy and once you brought it home and started cooking you realized it would be tastier to eat the book or you needed an advanced degree to make the food. So I decided to do the safe and smart thing; I printed off some of the recipes from the site to try first. Honestly, if the spaghetti and meatballs couldn't be done, I wasn't going to try anything else.
First thing I noticed: the recipes on the site are not exactly like the ones on the show. This one had a few different spices and the cooking was a little different (on the show they cook the sauce and balls 15 min. lid on, 15 min lid off-the recipe says 30 min lid on) I honestly don't think the changes are big enough it would alter the food much. This recipe was super easy to make and easy to follow. Though I did personalize it a little. I used onion powder instead of diced up onions because my husband doesn't like to eat onions. I didn't use the red pepper flakes because we don't like a lot of spice late at night because I don't want to have to eat Tums as after dinner mints (man do I sound old) and I won't use veal for personal reasons. Instead of the veal, I got the butcher to grind up 1/3 lb of the leanest beef they had.
In the end, the spaghetti and meatballs DID taste better healthier. The whole wheat pasta had a great flavor and really left me feeling satisfied eating less. The freshly grated Parmesan gave a good kick without putting much. I did use less salt in my batch and will still cut it back a bit next time, it just had way too much salt for my taste. Of course, I didn't have the red pepper flakes to counter balance that.
I do recommend this recipe and will be buying the book soon. The only change I would make is less salt and tell you to break up the bread before adding it to the mixture so you don't get any clumps of it. All and all, two forks up!