Guest Post! Low-Cal Fettuccine Alfredo

 Welcome to another Guest Post!  Everyone, meet my dear friend, Kristen!

     

Thanks for the post Kristen! Can't wait to try!

Hi Everyone, I am one of Rachel’s friends from college. We met my sophomore year and I was always known as “the blonde.” If any of you had my cooking back then you would understand why because I couldn’t cook very many things (I had to call one of my family members to find out what stuff meant in the recipe) and when I did I usually either forgot an ingredient or made a huge mess out of the kitchen. 

A lot has changed since my husband and I started living together two years ago. At the beginning I could either make tacos or spaghetti because my mom talked me through how to brown meat over the phone. After a few weeks of only eating tacos, spaghetti or carry-out I decided I needed more variety to our meals. 

So on my quest to find more ideas of what to cook I subscribed to the Food Network Magazine (with hopes that I would also become a better cook) and stumbled across this recipe for a Low-Cal Fettuccine Alfredo. I tried this recipe once and it was pretty easy and the best thing was that my husband liked it to. Since then I have made it several times and we always have leftovers which is always a plus.

Now...on to the recipe!

Low-Cal Fettuccine Alfredo

Serves: 3-4

Cook time according to Food Network: 25 minutes

Cook time according to Kristen: 30 mins

How difficult was this for Kristen? Easy

Ingredients:
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 clove garlic, minced
(I cheated, used pre-chopped)
1 tsp grated lemon zest 
(I cheated and did tsp of lemon juice)
2 tsp all-purpose flour
1 cup low-fat milk
Kosher salt
2 tsps Neufchtel or low-fat cream cheese
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, + topping
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2/3 box fettuccine noodles
Cooked chicken (optional)

Directions:

Boil pot of water.

While pot is boiling begin to make the sauce:

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Add garlic & lemon zest and cook for aprox 1 min

Add in flour and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon

(I'm not sure why the wooden spoon is necessary,  but I did it)

Whisk in the milk and 3/4 tsp salt & cook, whisking constantly until thickened, aprox 3 mins

Add cream cheese & parmesan cheese & whisk until melted.

Stir in chopped parsley & cooked chicken. Lower cooking temp to low.

Your pot of water should be boiling by now. Add noodles to the pot. 

Follow directions on package and cook till al dente

Watch the clock so you don't over cook them. I've done this quite a few times.

Drain out excess water but keep 1 cup of water to the side.

Pour sauce over the noodles and stir in 1/2 cup of the cooking water.

Add more water as needed.

Enjoy!

Meet my Sous Chef Lucky! Always anxiously waiting for me to accidentally drop something.