• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Home Garden Joy
  • Home
  • How to Garden
    • Garden Pests
    • Plant Diseases
    • Plant Profiles
    • Raised Bed Gardening
    • Seed Starting
    • Tools & Equipment
  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Herbs
  • About
    • Books & Classes
      • Herbalism Classes
      • Books for Christian Herbalists
      • Privacy Policy

Low Sodium Spaghetti and Meat Sauce Dinner

August 23, 2019 by Jeanne

Low sodium spaghetti and meat sauce s easy to make and whips up in half an hour or less. It’s low salt, low cholesterol, and packed with flavor! Who wouldn’t want a lovely Italian dinner that’s low sodium and reduces the salt in the original recipe by 84?

Recipe Rehab: Low Sodium Spaghetti and Meat Sauce Dinner

A typical Wednesday night meal for my family is spaghetti and meatballs. Sometimes we shake it up a little with chicken breast instead of meatballs, but the favorite by far is our Wednesday pasta night.

picture of spaghetti and meatballs

Until we started counting sodium and cholesterol, we had no idea how high in salt this meal was! Not only high in sodium and cholesterol, but calories, too.

This low sodium spaghetti and meat sauce recipe substitutes a few simple ingredients to produce a delicious low salt meal. At first, your family may notice a difference in the taste of the spaghetti sauce. Our palates accustom to high salt diets. Switching to a lower sodium diet or a heart-healthy diet tastes “funny” for a while until our taste buds adjust. Once they do, however, you’ll find the lower sodium meal tastes great.

Before: High Salt, High Cholesterol and Calories

Our typical spaghetti and meatballs meal included

  • Two homemade meatballs each
  • 4-6 ounces of spaghetti
  • About 1 cup of jar sauce from a commercial brand
  • Texas toast or garlic bread,
  • Glass of red wine.

The family recipe called for the meatballs to be baked in the oven in a little water to keep them moist. I thought this was healthier than frying and therefore I the ‘before’ recipe was fine for my family. Unfortunately, commercial Italian-style bread crumbs and eggs used to bind the ingredients increased the cholesterol and salt to unacceptable levels.

Weigh and Measure All Ingredients

Before being careful with our meals, I rarely weighed or measured all the ingredients in a meal. Instead, I was a casual cook; I’d just throw spaghetti into the pot and there you go. Help yourself.

One thing we learned is the importance of weighing and measuring ingredients for accurate calorie counts. This has been very helpful to my own personal weight loss. A little cut here and there in calories and fat adds up!

low sodium spaghetti and meat sauce

After: Lower Salt, Cholesterol and Calories

The “after” low sodium spaghetti and meat sauce meal includes, per person:

  • 4 ounces of spaghetti
  • 3 ounces of ground beef
  • Low salt tomato sauce made with no salt tomato sauce (homemade or storebought), 1 tablespoon no-salt tomato paste, and a tablespoon or two of commercial sauce for flavor
  • Basil, garlic, and mushrooms, cooked
  • Glass of red wine

 

The results:

Lowered calories by 24%, cholesterol by 53%, and sodium by 84%.

Are you ready to challenge yourself to eat healthier? Try one of our Friday Recipe Rehabs from Home Garden Joy.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Easy Recipes

Previous Post: « Recipe Rehab – Low Sodium Diet Meal Ideas
Next Post: Recipe Rehab – Low Sodium Tacos »

Primary Sidebar

Let’s Connect!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

As Seen in Porch

 As Seen in Porch

We were featured in Porch.com and answered reader's questions about indoor plants.

Explore All Gardening Articles

Latest Articles

  • Sunscald on Tomatoes: What It Is and How to Prevent It
  • Herbal Profile: Growing Calendula
  • Battling Anthracnose: A Cucumber Grower’s Guide to a Sneaky Fungal Foe

Herbalism Classes & Supplies

Goods Shop by Herbal Academy – botanically inspired products

Disclosure

Home Garden Joy participates in two affiliate programs: Amazon and The Herbal Academy. Home Garden Joy earns a commission from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate. As an Herbal Academy Associate, HGJ also earns a commission when you sign up for classes or purchase herbs or supplies from The Herbal Academy. Herbal information and recipes on this site are provided for educational purposes only.

Footer

a close up of a cucumber leaf with anthracnose

Battling Anthracnose: A Cucumber Grower’s Guide to a Sneaky Fungal Foe

If you’ve ever stepped into your garden and noticed strange brown spots or sunken blemishes on your cucumbers, you might be facing a common but troublesome fungal disease known as anthracnose. Caused by Colletotrichum orbiculare, anthracnose thrives in warm, humid conditions and can quickly spread across your crop if not addressed early. This year in…

Read More

cucumbers and tomatoes in harvest basket

How to Grow Cucumbers: A Complete Guide

Learn how to grow cucumbers in this complete guide. I’ve grown cucumbers my entire life, and I still marvel at the prices of them at the supermarket. I can only imagine that we’re all paying for the transportation, for cucumbers are some of the easiest vegetables to grow. In fact, you may find yourself muttering,…

Read More

small round eggplant

Growing Eggplant: A Guide for Gardeners

Growing eggplant (a small garden devoted to fresh, seasonal edibles) is relatively easy in zone 7, where I garden, but combating the bugs is another story. Growing epplant in pots, containers, raised beds, or garden soil is all possible if you are willing to go the extra mile to control its nemesis, the Colorado potato…

Read More

cherry tomatoes in various stages of ripeness

Volunteer Plants – Nature’s Unexpected Gifts

Volunteer plants are one of nature’s most delightful surprises. They spring up unbidden, often in places we didn’t expect—cracks in sidewalks, corners of compost piles, or nestled beside a stone foundation, like the vibrant coleus seedlings growing near my deck shown in these pictures. These botanical freeloaders aren’t weeds; they’re plants that have reseeded themselves…

Read More

  • Privacy Policy
  • About
  • Awards

Copyright © 2025 Home Garden Joy on the Foodie Pro Theme