My Mission:

I love cooking. I love baking. I feel like it's a wonderful outlet for my creativity and a way to warm the hearts of my loved ones. Days spent in my kitchen with my apron on and flour in my hair are my favorite days.
However- having struggled with my weight my whole life I've learned how to modify recipes for years. Now on Weight Watchers- I still cook delicious foods for my husband but I have tricks to shave off lots of fat and calories!
Allow me to share....

Monday, January 24, 2011

Saucy!! Spinach and garlic alfredo sauce for those yummy noodles!

Ok. Not to sound like Ina Garden (because I feel like it's condescending to ASSUME everyone is  the same) but "who doesn't love fettucini alfredo??" The truth is- I rarely eat it because I know what's in it! Cream, butter and cheese. Um, no offense but that's really, really, really bad for you! "yeah- I'll take a plate of carbs and could you please drown it in pure fat with a side of fat please?" Unless you're my friend Kate (Hi Kate!!!) and you are going to 2 exercise classes a day... you probably shouldn't be eating this stuff (not often anyways). However, who says once in a while a trimmed down version is bad? I'm still scared to check the WW points value on t his one because I know it will be a scary number. But I also know that it's so rare that I make  this and it's soooo much better for you and wicked yummy, too!
Here it is:
In a skillet heat 2 tsp of EVOO (I know Rachel Ray has overused this term but to be honest "extra virgin olive oil" is a lot to type every few lines. So I'm sticking with Rach on  this one!) and toss in a couple cloves of garlic thinly sliced. Cook for about 1 min and then add a bag of fresh baby spinach and toss with tongs to coat the greens with the hot garlic oil. Cover and cook about 5 mins until spinach is wilted. Sprinkle with a little salt and fresh grated nutmeg (if you have it) , toss it and take of heat and let it sit.
Next pot. (Oh I hope you have help cleaning after this meal! Lots of dishes!)
Melt 1 TBS of butter and then add 1 TBS of four and cook for a min or so. You are making a roux to help thicken the sauce. Next you are going to whisk in one can of evaporated milk (NOT the sweet kind!! There's a huge difference!). The kind of milk (there's fat free which is what I usually use, 2% and whole) you use is your prerogative. The reason I used canned milk is because it's condensed and much creamier than regular milk so it has more of a "cream" like texture with out all the fat in cream! Ok so whisk the milk in. Keep an eye on your heat. It shouldn't be over medium at this point. If my husband reads this he will likely be laughing at this part because almost daily he comes in the kitchen and questions my temperature because I apparently use a higher temp than I should! Ha! Anyways, bottom line is  that you don't want burnt sauce! Gross!
Time to spice things up a bit! I season my sauce with sea salt (start with a small amount! You can always add more! It's like I say when I cut people's hair "I can take more but I can't put it back!" Same rule), fresh grated nutmeg (The bottled stuff is fine I'm sure but I just like to use my microplane zester!!), black pepper and sometimes garlic powder, too. Taste your sauce (but don't double dip your spoon unless it's just you and your significant other). Now the yummy part! Parmesan! I use parmesan reggiano which is the best you can get. It's usually by the deli in the cheese part of the store. I buy a hunk of it and grate it up as I go (it will last a long time and a little goes a long way!). You could also just buy shredded parm in the processed cheese isle if that's easier for you. Either way, you need aprox (again, eyeball and taste!) 1/2 cup of shredded/grated cheese. Whisk it in and taste it again. It should thicken the sauce right up. If not, add a little more. When it's the right consistency, add the tasty garlic infused wilted spinach!
Toss with your favorite pasta and serve with some pepper or more grated cheese on top if you wish.

1 comment:

  1. Yes! I made into the blog!!

    Awesome job DeeDeeMrsBee! I love how you write like you talk; I can hear you as I read!

    ReplyDelete