Alfredo Sauce… Healthified

When I saw Megan’s post about a healthier version of fettuccine Alfredo that she read about in Runners’ World magazine, I immediately scanned the ingredient list to see if I had everything necessary to recreate this recipe at home tonight.

Sch-weeeeet! I did!

The Goods

Healthified fettuccine Alfredo for dinn-ah!

The sauce was super easy to make (a requirement for all PBF dinners, apparently 😉 ) and I got to use the fresh garlic Ryan’s mom gave us the last time we were visiting her in Sarasota.

Minced Garlic

Within 15 minutes we had a creamy, healthier version of Alfredo sauce a-awaitin’ some pasta.

Saucy

I topped fettuccine noodles with the sauce and threw in some steamed broccoli and sautéed portobello mushrooms for good measure.

Veggies + Pasta + Sauce

 

Dinner

 Ryan and I both thought the recipe was good… but not great. It was a little tangy from the Greek yogurt. When I think of Alfredo sauce I think of creamy, cheesy, buttery goodness. 😉 For a healthy substitute, however, it was pretty darn good!

Do you prefer red sauce or white sauce?

I’m a red sauce girl through and through, but I do like to change it up every now and then.

Rocco’s Fettuccine Alfredo (Recipe by Rocco DiSpirito)

Ingredients:

8 ounces whole-wheat fettuccine
1 tablespoon butter
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Pinch of ground nutmeg
3/4 cup low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
3/4 cup 5 percent Greek yogurt
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add fettuccine; cook according to package directions.

While pasta cooks, melt butter in a large nonstick saute pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook two minutes.

Combine cornstarch and nutmeg in a small bowl; whisk in chicken broth until smooth. Pour into saute pan, raise the heat, and bring sauce to a simmer, whisking occasionally.

Whisk in 1/2 cup of the cheese until melted. Remove pan from heat.
Whisk in yogurt until smooth.

Toss fettuccine with Alfredo sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Top pasta with remaining cheese. Serves four.

Nutritional information (per serving): Calories – 336, Carbs – 47g, Protein – 18g, Fat – 10g

A Pear Through and Through

At the grocery store on Sunday, Ryan picked up a jar of Emeril’s roasted gaaahlic pasta sauce.

Gaaahlic Pasta Sauce

Woo-wee! This pasta sauce is like a garlic explosion in your mouth. It’s so garlicy that it’s almost spicy!

I like it, but I don’t love it and probably wouldn’t buy it again. Still, it added a nice punch of flavor to my pasta bowl for lunch today.

Pasta Bowl

Oh, Hello There, Zucchini

Yummy Noodles

My noodle bowl included:

• Carba Nada egg fettuccine noodles
• Roasted gaaahlic pasta sauce
• Portobello mushrooms
• Roasted zucchini
• Parmesan cheese (of course)

For dessert I enjoyed a cuppa sugar-free strawberry Jello.

Fruitful Bodies

When I purchased by wedding dress on Saturday, I inevitably had to be measured to ensure we ordered the proper size gown.

I’ve always been smaller up top and had a boot-ay and hips (the definition of a “pear” body shape).

My Body, In Fruit-Form

Since I’m such a pear, I wasn’t surprised to find out that I needed a split-size dress… but I didn’t realize just how split the size would be.

My dress size was broken down into three segments: bust, waist and hip size.

I actually have three whole sizes between my bust/waist size and my hip size… And get this: I actually ended up ordering the bottom of my dress in a size size larger than recommended because my dress is more form-fitting and I want it to be more A-line and flowy. I don’t want my dress to cup my booty, so there is a four dress size difference between the top half of my dress and the bottom half. Wow-zaa!

What fruit body shape are you? An apple (carries weight in the middle)? A pear (carries weight in the hips and butt)? A banana (straight up and down)?

Garlicy Dinn-ah!

Since I began fostering my love for Brussels sprouts this year, I’ve only tried a small handful of recipes involving the yummy vegetable. 

Fresh Brussels Sprouts

I typically limit my Brussels sprouts preparation to tossing the sprouts in olive oil, salt and pepper before roasting them. 

When I saw that this week’s Blogger Secret Ingredient was garlic, I knew I wanted to use garlic in my next Brussels sprouts dish. 

Garlic

To begin, I chopped up the Brussels sprouts, getting rid of dingy leaves and the hard bottoms. 

I then tossed the Brussels sprouts with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper before roasting them at 400 degrees for 13 minutes on one side. 

Pre-Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I then flipped the sprouts and roasted them for another five minutes on the other side until they were soft, but slightly crispy on the outside. 

Balsamic and Garlic Roasted Brussels Sprouts

This recipe was fan-flippin-tastic. I loved the added oomph of flavor from the garlic and balsamic vinegar. Delish! 

Though the Brussels sprouts were the highlight of my meal, I also enjoyed a salmon burger on a whole wheat Arnold sandwich thin with cucumber and plum tomato slices and a dill dijonaise sauce made with  light Miracle Whip, dijon mustard and dill. Great dinner! 

My Dinner!

Balsamic and Garlic Roasted Brussels Sprouts 

Ingredients:

• 1.25 lbs. Brussels sprouts (roughly 5 c. chopped)
• 1.5 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chop Brussels spouts, removing hard ends and wilted leaves. Combine all ingredients, tossing to coat the Brussels sprouts in the mixture. Spread on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 13 minutes before flipping the Brussels sprouts and baking for an additional 5 minutes.

Is .wordpress.com a Big Deal? 

I have a question for all of you blog-followers out there. Do you think having “.wordpress.com” in the domain name of a blog hurts readership?  

  

Wordpress "W"

 I am not computer saavy at all and have toyed around with making the jump from WordPress to my own domain name (I even purchased peanutbutterfingersblog.com – peanubutterfingers.com was taken. 😦 ) I am happy using WordPress right now, but know it’s much easier to remember blog names when it’s just the blog name.com. 

Please share your thoughts! 🙂 

Wedding Dress Input 

Thank you to all of you who commented on my simple vs. sha-zaam wedding dress post! It was so interesting to read such a wide variety of opinions. No wonder there are bazillions of wedding dresses out there to choose from. I hope I find a beautiful dress and I will be sure to keep you guys updated on my progress. 😀

Cheese, Sausage and Squash… What Could Be Better?

…well, ice cream. 😉

But since I was planning dinner and not dessert, cheese, sausage and squash seemed like the makings for a delicious dish.

Before starting dinner, Ryan and I took Sadie on a walk around the lake.

Ryan and the Pup

Spooky lookin’ skies made us walk a little faster.

Menacing Skies

Despite our super-fast walking, we got caught in a downpour. Thankfully, in true Florida fashion, it was over within five minutes. We were able to hide out under a big tree that kept us mostly dry.

When we walked back to our apartment I noticed Grimace the Pumpkin’s smile has turned into a smirk with age. I still love you, Grimace!

Me, Sadie and Grimace

By the time we got home our tummies were a-grumblin’. It was tiiiiime for dinner.

I was motivated to use my acorn squash when I saw that this lil’ baby is the featured ingredient in the Blogger Secret Ingredient contest, currently hosted by Megan this week. I’m not a fancy-dancy chef or an expert photographer, so hopefully this un-glamorous dish will appeal to someone, likely a simpleton like myself. 🙂

Here are the supplies for tonight’s sausagey squash dinn-ah:

Sausage Acorn Squash Ingredients

To begin, I poked the acorn squash all over with a knife before microwaving it for five minutes (flipping it over at three minutes).

While the squash was a-cookin’, I combined sliced Aidell’s sun-dried tomato and mozzarella sausages, onion, garlic cloves and sliced mushroom in a pan coated with a bit of olive oil. I let the mixture cook until the onions were soft and slightly caramelized.

Onion, Mushrooms, Garlic

Sun-Dried Tomato and Mozzarella Sausage

Veggies and Sausage

I then added tomato basil marinara sauce over the mixture and let it simmer on low.

Sizzlin'

Once the squash was tender, I removed it from the microwave, cut it in half and removed the seeds before filling the squash-pockets with the sausage mixture.

Acorn Squash

Stuffed Squash

Since I can’t seem to eat anything tomato-based without cheese, I topped the filled squash with shredded cheese before placing it in the oven at 325 degrees. I let it bake for approximately eight minutes, until the cheese was ooey-gooey.

Sausage Squash with Cheese

Voila! Super easy sausage squash!

 

My Bowl o' Squizz-ash

 

Spectrum Sports Performance Personal Training

Last week at my friend Merri’s pumpkin carving party, she mentioned that her gym Spectrum Sports Performance is offering free personal training sessions to women this week. I’ve heard Merri rave about this gym since she joined, and her stories about the intense cardio sessions and creative weight circuits trainers have designed for her have always peaked my interest.

Picture from Spectrum Sports Performance

I jumped at the opportunity to give this gym a shot. (You guys know I love freebies!) Early tomorrow morning I am meeting with Rob who will be taking me through a cardio workout.

Check out Rob’s impressive bio:

Rob is a graduate of Hofstra University and brings a unique combination of passion and commitment to the SSP Team. After two years at the University of Louisville he transferred to Hofstra University where he was a 3 time All American kicker at the Division 1 Level. It was at Hofstra where Coach David Cohen called Rob, “The hardest worker he has ever coached.” His love of sports appears to only be surpassed by his passion for Health and Fitness and we’re confident this experience and enthusiasm will translate into great things for our clients.

In addition to his collegiate experience Rob has worked under Steve Saunders with fellow Performance Specialist Nate Caraway. at Power Train Sports one of the elite training programs in the northeast. It was at PTS that Rob gained valuable experience working with athletes at the Professional, Collegiate and High School levels. He has also coordinated and contributed to a number of Football, Soccer and Basketball training camps and is on the staff of FKS, a kicking school owned and operated by Tom Feely.

Before SSP Rob spent some time in the Cleveland Browns NFL training camp and currently is ranked in the top 5 of all active college kickers in 3 major categories including 1st in the nation in Kicks made per game. A graduate of Colonial High School he was a 4 year Letterman in Soccer and Football. He was named Captain of the Soccer team in 2001 and 2002 and lead the Grenadiers to their best record in school history in 2002.

They were kind enough to ask about my gym routine and are designing a cardio workout since Thursday is typically a cardio-only day for me, as I do total-body weights on Wednesdays.  Since I’ve never worked with a trainer before, I’m nervous and excited to see what they have in store!

I find myself falling into a workout routine lately and I think this is a great way to shock the old bod and try something new and challenging. If  I don’t post tomorrow morning, I may be passed out on the gym floor…

Question: Have you ever worked out with a personal trainer? Did you enjoy your experience?

Pumpkin the Savory Way

I may be pumpkin’s number one fan. I love the fall because places begin carrying pumpkin-infused goodies. Pumpkin muffins, Frappuccinos, cookies, scones and pies are popping up everywhere and I am in heaven.

Whenever I incorporate the yummy squash into my recipes, I generally make sweet dishes, sweetened with cinnamon, nutmeg or pumpkin’s lover: pumpkin pie spice. This evening I was determined to use the fall delight to make a savory dish: pasta with pumpkin sauce.

I began to make the pumpkin sauce by sauteing chopped yellow squash and onion in a pan sprayed with cooking spray.

Sizzlin' Squash and Onions

Once the onions became slightly carmelized, I added a splash of chicken broth and some finely diced garlic and let it simmer for a couple minutes.

Chicken Broth and Garlic

While the veggies were simmering, I cooked up some pasta.

Noodles

I then added half a cup of canned pumpkin and a splash of Almond Breeze almond milk to the veggies.

Almond Breeze Almond Milk

Pumpkin Sauce

I seasoned the pumpkin sauce with salt and pepper before topping the noodles with the savory sauce.

Savory Pumpkin Pasta

When I tasted the sauce on its own, I wasn’t sure if it was what I was going for, but when I used it to top the noodles, I was very pleased. The pumpkin and veggies created a thick sauce, making this a wonderful fall pasta dish.

Yum, Yum

It was kind of weird enjoying a food I normally associate with sweetness without the typical cinnamon and spices, but I enjoyed using pumpkin in a different way. Plus, I felt like I was making a seasonally appropriate dish which put me in a fabulous fall mood!  

Time to clean up the apartment a bit and read more of The Lost Symbol. Poor Dan Brown’s book has been very neglected lately because we’ve been so busy! I gotta give it some lovin’ tonight. 😉