So I have absolutely no groceries and absolutely no money, and to top it off, Charlie and I are in competition to see who can reach their goal weight faster. Therefore, I'm trying to eat as healthy as possible. To that end, I was looking for something delicious but super healthy for dinner, and here's what I came up with.
It started as crawfish remoulade over lettuce with tomatoes last week, but I had more crawfish in the freezer and a bit of remoulade left. No lettuce though. So instead I cooked some spaghetti, sauteed the crawfish using Pam, Tony's, garlic powder, red pepper, onion powder and seasoned salt, tossed the crawfish in the remoulade, and added a slice of turkey bacon and about a half-ounce of reduced fat feta cheese. I can't tell you how good it was!
Here's the remoulade recipe:
1 tbsp. chopped celery
1 tbsp. chopped onion
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. Creole or spicy mustard
1 tbsp. yellow mustard
1 1/2 tbsp. ketchup
1 hard-boiled egg, chopped
Salt
Cayenne Pepper
3/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Combine crawfish with enough remoulade to coat, and set aside to marinate. Add more remoulade to dish to taste.

Here's the thing: I omitted the celery, and added chopped bell pepper the first time I made the remoulade. I thought I wouldn't have enough for the second dish so I made more, but I didn't have an egg or lemon juice. I just sort of combined the old remoulade with the new remoulade, and I added a bit of extra ketchup because it didn't look the right color. Anyway, you can make it as spicy as you want, and I also added some capers to the pasta. Super delish.

I'm in love with pasta. I could eat it every day of the week. I'm also a big fan of making food with what I have in the refrigerator. This weekend I threw together a quick pasta dish that came out pretty tasty, so I figured I would share.

- A box of cooked Fusilli
- 3/4 a stick of butter
- Three medium size cloves of garlic
- A small onion
- A package of sweet Italian sausage
- A cup of white wine
- Half a pint of heavy cream
- Diced tomatoes (I used canned and drained them because the sauce would be too thin with the juice but fresh can easily be substituted)
- A cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta and set aside, or cook during preparation if you can multi-task.

In a large skillet melt the butter. When the butter gets warm, add garlic and onion and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Remove sausage from casing and cut into small chunks. Add sausage pieces to skillet and simmer until brown, but not fully cooked.

Add cup of white wine and let simmer until broth reduces by half.

Add the half of a pink of heavy cream, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese, let simmer while stirring until well mixed.

Add cook Fusilli and let stand for a few minutes so the noodles can suck up the sauce. Enjoy!

-- Ginger

A few days ago, Sarah asked me if I had a good alfredo recipe. I told her I had a good one, but it was really, REALLY unhealthy.

That night, I decided I wanted alfredo sauce for dinner, but I didn't have whipping cream or a lot of butter to make the full-fat recipe happen.

This was my 'healthier' creation (with ingredients I enjoy), and it turned out well considering this is the first time I attempted it.

Light Chicken Alfredo Sauce
Adapted from Agnoletti with Light Alfredo Sauce
Serves four.

Chicken
2 chicken breasts
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Light Alfredo Sauce
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt
1/2 cup 2% milk
2 tablespoons half and half
1 teaspoon flour
1/4 cup parmesan
Pepper to taste

Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and season. Pour olive oil into pan over medium heat. Brown the chicken in the pan, stirring occasionally. After chicken is browned, take out of pan and dab excess oil off with a paper towel.

In the same pan, lower heat, add yogurt and milk and simmer. Be careful to not have the heat on too high because scalded milk in a sauce makes an unhappy sauce. Add the half and half and a teaspoon of flour to help thicken the sauce. Make sure to use a whisk to break apart the flour so it does not make the sauce lumpy. The sauce will gradually thicken over the heat.

As the sauce thickens, put the chicken back into the pan to meld with the sauce. Let them meld together for about ten to fifteen minutes. Add pepper to taste. After that, take the pan OFF the heat and pour in the parmesan. Keep in mind that the cheese will make the sauce saltier and once you add it to the mix, you cannot take it out. Measure the parmesan in increments so the sauce won't be TOO cheesy. (If that's possible.)

Once the parmesan melts through, pour sauce on top of pasta and enjoy.


What is YOUR favorite alfredo recipe?

-Erin