I recently posted on my facebook page how Alfredo sauce in a jar tastes like crap.  One person said that it smells like feet and I would have to agree with that. People were also asking questions on how to enhance alfredo sauce and I think this recipe does a good job of that. I like the combination of alfredo sauce and marinara sauce together and with extra added cheese this dish will not smell like feet! I guarantee it! It almost reminds me of pasta dish I had once at Bocca de Beppi’s.

I’ve been really sick of Winter lately. The first day of Spring is in a couple of days and we are still expecting a lot of snow here. I’m ready for thunderstorms, the tall hills of snow banks to go away so that  we can see where we’re driving at when we turn a corner, planting my garden, and wearing my new jean jacket that I just love. Heck, I might as well just wear it and not wait for Spring to get here. It’s so cute and goes really well with colored denim!

Recipe from Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour

Two Timing Pasta Bake

Print recipe

Ingredients

• 1 box 16 ounces of penne pasta
• 1 jar 15 oz alfredo sauce (your favorite)
• 1 jar 24 oz marinara sauce
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup parmesan cheese

Directions

Step 1

Cook pasta according to directions and drain. Mix the sauces together in a large bowl.

Step 2

Add the mozzarella and stir to combine. Then toss in the penne and toss to coat.

Step 3

Pour pasta into 9x13 baking dish and cook on 350 for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly. Add extra cheese on top and bake until melted if you wish.

Let’s face it. Nothing quite compares to Heavy Cream which is used as the main ingredient in Alfredo. Heavy cream can make anything bad taste good, not to mention butter and bacon. I think that Alfredo sauce is probably one of the hardest dishes to make lighter.

I used 1% milk instead of the 2% the recipe called for. That would have probably made the sauce a little bit richer. There is also fat free half-and-half, but I can never find that in the grocery stores. Is there such a think as Fat Free Heavy Cream???  It calls for butter and parmesan cheese too. HELLO?! That’s like impossible to find ingredients to replace all that yummy goodness with. I thought this recipe did a good job of trying to make it lighter and it still tasted good. Like I said before, nothing compares to the real sauce. If you ever feel like indulging this is the dish to make.

If any of you are experiencing blank pages, I’m sorry. Try loading it again in the next few moments. I have to upgrade my ram on this website and hopefully that should take care of the problem!

Servings: 4

Per serving: Calories 490; Fat 15 g (Saturated 8 g); Cholesterol 48 mg; Sodium 734 mg; Carbohydrate 66 g; Fiber 3 g; Protein 20 g

Recipe from Food Network Magazine

Lighter Fettuccine Alfredo

Print recipe

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 clove garlic (minced)
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 3/4 cups grated (parmesan cheese)
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons Neufchtel or low-fat cream cheese
• 12 ounces fettuccine noodles

Directions

Step 1

Make the sauce: Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and lemon zest and cook until the garlic is slightly soft, about 1 minute. Add in the flour and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon,1 minute. Whisk in the milk and 3/4 teaspoon salt and cook, whisking constantly, until just thickened, about 3 minutes. Add the Neufchatel and parmesan cheese; whisk until melted, about 1 minute. Stir in the chopped parsley.

Step 2

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the fettuccine and cook until al dente, 2 to 3 minutes. Reserve 1 cup cooking water, then drain the pasta and return to the pot.

Step 3

Add the sauce and 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking water to the pasta and gently toss to combine, adding more cooking water as needed to loosen. Season with salt. Divide among bowls and top with parmesan and pepper.

I think this is one of the best noodle dishes I’ve ever made! It was so good.  I wish I had the cilantro and carrots to add into this and next time I’ll add in some chicken. Highly recommended if you love some Thai food. The website I got this recipe from said that you can even omit the peanut oil if you wish. The peanuts give it a nice crunch. It’s nice and spicy too.

Nutrition info was figured out using whole wheat noodles. This dish is kind of pointy but what do you expect with the sesame oil?

Servings: 8

Points Plus: 12

Ingredients adapted from A Small Snippet

1 – 2 Tablespoons of Crushed Red Pepper
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 cp of sesame oil
6 tablespoons of honey
6 tablespoons of soy sauce
1/2 cup green onion
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
1/2 cup of cilantro
3/4 cup of peanuts

16 oz of linguini or spaghetti noodles

Directions:
Boil noodles.
Cook the two oils together over medium heat for 2 minutes. Strain the crushed red pepper and keep the oil.
Whisk together the honey and soy sauce into the oil.

Pour mixture on top of noodles and toss together until noodles are well coated. Chop the veggies and peanuts and add them to the noodles.

I’m so excited that we got the pasta maker attachment for our kitchen aid mixer as a wedding gift. Thanks to Laura (my brother’s girlfriend) and her parents for getting us that. It was the last attachment that we needed and I just love it.

Anne Burrell was making fresh pasta on her show today and I tried her recipe. The pasta dough didn’t work out at all and was a crumbly mess. When it came to rolling it out, the dough didn’t flatten at all. Sorry, Anne. I decided to use the recipe that came with the pasta maker attachment and that recipe worked so well. It took two tries, and took awhile to make… but I was kind bored this Saturday and needed something to do. I made fresh ravioli and stuffed it with a ricotta cheese mixture and topped that with some marinara sauce. I also tried making some spaghetti noodles. The spaghetti noodles kind of just stuck together. I want to get one of those ravioli cutters that make it look like it the pasta has curvy edges now.

Here’s me, making pasta for the time. It was fun to watch the dough thin out and run it through the pasta maker. The attachment has different settings you can change it to, depending on how thick you want the pasta.

Here is the finished ravioli. So good.

I also tried making spaghetti noodles. They turned out more like a human brain.  See what I mean?

Here’s the recipe for the pasta dough. I had to add in almost 1/4 cup of water to get the dough to a better consistency.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cup of flour

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon water (I used 1/4 cup water)

Mix all ingredients and knead in your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment for about 2 minutes. Take the dough out and knead with your hands. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

This dish was missing something. Ben thinks it was meat and I thought it needed more spice. The crusty cheese on the top was my favorite part.  I know all pasta tastes the same, but I want to try it again with spaghetti noodles and try adding some more spices to it. Use a jar of store bought marinara sauce to make life so much easier. I wonder if the noodles could bake in the oven with the pasta sauce instead of boiling them in the water for a little while????

Nutrition Info: Calories 328 | Fat 10.87g | Carbohydrate 43.44g | Fiber 7.3g | Protein 17.03g

Points Plus: 8

Servings: 8 (If using regular pasta, the points plus value is 10 per serving)

Using Whole Wheat Pasta

• 2 cans whole peeled tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves smashed and peeled
• 3/4 pound spagetti
• 2 cups diced mozzarella
• Italian seasoning
• salt

1. Preheat oven to 400*
2. Set a large pot of salted water to boil.
3. In a food processor, pulse tomatoes until chopped.
4. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high and add garlic and cook until fragrant.
5. Add tomatoes and bring to a boil.
6. Add Italian seasoning and salt to taste.
7. Cook until sauces starts to thicken
8. Meanwhile, cook pasta for 5 minutes. Drain pasta and return to pot.
9. Add tomato sauce and half of the mozzarella and toss to combine.
10. Transfer mixture to a 3-quart baking dish and top with remaining cheese.
11. bake until cheese is golden. About 20-25 minutes.

1 lb of 80% beef
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup seasoned panko bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
salt and fresh pepper

Preheat oven to 400°.

Place garlic and parsley into a small food processor or chopper and pulse a few times until finely minced.

In a large bowl combine beef turkey, chopped herbs, bread crumbs, egg,  salt and pepper. Using your hands, mix well and measure 1/4 cup meat, then divide in two so you end up with each meatball 1/8 cup in size. Roll and place on a baking pan.

——————————————————————————-

On top of spaghetti, all cover with cheese. I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed….. Nobody sneezed on these meat balls, don’t worry.

These meatballs were so so, I saw on skinnytaste.com that she had mad turkey meatballs. I kind of followed the recipe and made Italian meatballs instead. Changed up the ingredients a bit. Ben thought in order to make these meatballs tastier, they could have cooked in the tomato sauce for awhile.

The pasta sauce wasn’t anything fancy. Just a jar of roasted garlic Ragu sauce. Did you ever see the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where the Mom told everybody that her secret was a jar of store bought marinara sauce? Well, that’s my secret too. Guess it’s out now.

Everyone goes into the pool.

Then get’s rolled up into a ball. I can’t believe my new lens took this picture with flash on. I think it looks way better than the one I tried taking using my light studio.

These are the finished meatballs taken with my light studio. I don’t know which picture I like better.