When my Gram makes the gravy on Sundays (that's Italian for tomato sauce with all the meats, cooked slow all day...) I usually have a few meatballs, a piece of sausage and the salad. Now she throws a piece of pork in the pot for me. I lay off the bread and pasta, and really don't miss it. But when I'm home, that's different.

I've been cooking down a frozen bag of short cut green beans in olive oil and garlic, until they're fried down to almost burned. They take on a rich, kind of carmelized taste and are more than tender, almost soft. I spread that on my plate and put my meats and sauce over it. Not pasta, but not bad.

There really isn't any substituting ravioli! But thank goodness we can at least have the cheese! Beats the heck out of low fat, when I could have all the plain spaghetti, but no meat, cheese, salad dressing, butter, etc. Echhh!!