Guiltless Alfredo Sauce

Alfredo sauce is one of those things that I only splurge on in restaurants, and even then only once in a while. Usually that's at The Olive Garden, and apparently (according to a friend who waits tables there) the Chicken Alfredo has over 2,000 calories and almost 100 grams of fat. No wonder it tastes so good, right? Alfredo sauce is also one of those things that was always on my list of 'things that should never be 'light''. Until this recipe!

I hate it when people hand you some sort of baked good and say "you can't even tell it's light!" as you force something resembling cardboard into your mouth nodding and trying to smile reassuringly. I swear to you, this is actually really good. It's thick and creamy and flavorful, and I promise you, it really doesn't taste light.

 I also love this sauce is because it's so quick and easy. You can have it done in under 10 minutes, and it's made with stuff you probably already have. And if you really don't care about calories, go ahead and make it with whole milk. It's still going to be waaay lighter than using cream, and it tastes extra delicious. I know because when I made it for these pictures I had extra whole milk left-over from ice cream so I tossed it in there. Yum! I just like to give options for different preferences of people.

Guiltless Alfredo Sauce

2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves
1 C grated Parmesan cheese

Toss the milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender.

Process until smooth and set aside. In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Stand above the pan (but not close enough to scald your face) and inhale. n't want to Ahhh...butter and garlic. They should make a Scentsy Candle of it. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don't want to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly like this:

Then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.

When it's nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid. Just re-heat and add a little milk and it will be back to normal again. Put it on top of some whole wheat pasta and either shrimp, or grilled chicken breast, and you have a very healthy, yummy meal!

I use this sauce for so many things. Here's a few ideas:

-Over pasta (obviously)
-As a dip for breadsticks
-As a sauce on pizza (half batch of sauce covers 2 medium pizza's)
-Mix it with pesto for a creamy pesto sauce (so good)
-Mix it with marinara for a creamy marinara sauce

One time when we had some friends over for a game night, and we did a pasta bar. I made a couple different pastas, a couple different meats, and then made this sauce, marinara, and pesto. Everyone had so much fun mixing and matching and combining. The adults could get fancy with alfredo-pesto over bow-ties and the kids could have plain ol' spaghetti if they wanted to. Toss in some french bread and a salad and you have a really fun, and really easy meal!