Recipe: Low-Fat, Low Cal Creamy Alfredo-ey Sauce. Yes it can be done.

Fettuccine Alfredo is my favorite thing ever. I allow myself to partake in the fullfat version of its luxurious sauce at a restaurant on a quarterly basis but in between when I need my fix, I have my own sauce and it is really really good. So good that I can actually push the "quarterly" fullfat version out a little. Sometimes.

It started out as just a white sauce, in fact it really is just a plain basic white sauce. But one day I added some parmesan cheese to it and made an alfredo. And one day I added low-fat cheddar to it and made cheddar sauce. It's a great sauce to play with! And a great sauce for alfredo too.

So here's my recipe for:

Low-Fat-ish, Low Cal-ish Alfredo Sauce

The ingredients:
2 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 cup skim milk
4-6 tbsp grated parmesan cheese (depending on your taste).
Directions:
Melt butter in sauce pan on medium.. Slowly add flour and whisk with wire whisk until creamy. Slowly add milk while stirring. Keep stirring and stirring and stirring until it starts to boil and thicken. Do not take your eyes off cream sauce, it clumps and burns quickly. Keep stirring! When it thickens, add salt & pepper and keep stirring. Then add parmesan cheese (or any other cheese) while stirring. (You can easily double the ingredients to make a little more sauce, I usually do.)

For some reason, I think of the day I successfully made my first white sauce as a turning point in my marriage and as a cook. I say "successfully" because up until that point, I had burned it so many times and couldn't get the hang of it. The same with gravy.

Until one day.

Now I have skillz and I'm pretty proud of my sauces.

And ever since then, actually, I could cook pretty well. Except I ruined green Jell-O the other day and it still baffles me how I did that.

Anyway, you can add chicken to the sauce and pour it over your favorite fettuccine noodles (I love the spinach ones and also I'm having a love affair don't tell my husband  with the new Garden Delights pastas out there now.) You can also pour it over vegetables. You don't need to use too much, just enough to get your fix. It's not calorie-fat-free, but it's a LOT better than the full-fat version.

Enjoy!