Low-Fat Fettuccine Shrimp Alfredo

Lately I've been counting calories and trying to get up every morning at 5:30 to work out. I'm going SCUBA diving in the Bahamas in just over a month and I want to try to have a somewhat decent bikini body by then.

Earlier today I was trying to figure out what to fix for supper tonight and I decided Fettuccine Shrimp Alfredo sounded good. The only problem is it would totally put me over my calorie limit. So, I went in search of a low-fat version of Alfredo Sauce. You may be thinking, "Yuck! How can Alfredo Sauce taste even halfway decent when it's low-fat." Well, I found a recipe and it turned out pretty good! I found it on recipezaar.com . I LOVE that site!

Here is the recipe:

Low-Fat Alfredo Sauce

1-2 TBSP freshly minced garlic
1 tsp dried chili pepper flakes, to taste (optional)
1 TBSP oil
2 cups nonfat milk
1 cup fat-free chicken broth
4 TBSP flour (use 3 for a thinner sauce)
1/4 tsp black pepper (or to taste)
salt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese (can use more)

In a skillet heat oil over medium heat; add in garlic and chili pepper flakes and saute for a couple minutes. Stir/whisk in the milk, chicken broth, flour, and black pepper over low heat until smooth, thickened, and heated through. Add Parmesan Cheese and salt (if desired). This is also when I added the shrimp (frozen shrimp; thawed). (The sauce didn't thicken as fast as I thought it would so I added the cheese and shrimp before it thickened and let the shrimp cook. By the time the sauce was thick the shrimp was that nice pink color it gets when perfectly done.) Serve over cooked pasta.




The only changes I made were that I used Olive Oil instead of Canola, I accidentally put in too much of the chili pepper flakes, and I used about a 1/2 - 3/4 cups of Parmesan Cheese. Oh, and the original recipe called for onions, but I'm not a big onion fan so I left them out. According to the site this recipe only has 96 calories per serving (just over 1 cup). Yay!!!! :)

"The gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch." ~ James Beard

Cuteness and Innocence

A few weeks ago I got to see a fairly new baby. Her name is Rhia and she was born a few months ago. Unfortunately, this was the first time I'd gotten to see her. I only live an hour away and it took me darn near 3 months to find time to go see this precious little girl! What is wrong with me?! Anyway, the day I drove over to see her, a blizzard hit. I thought about turning around because the roads were bad, but I just couldn't do it. I had waited long enough to see Rhia and I was going to make it to Douglas "come hell or high water" (or a blizzard, in this case)! So I continued trudging along through 4" deep slush and limited visibility (dealing with a few CRAZY drivers) and it was definitely worth it! Rhia is so cute! Okay, so most babies are cute, but she is CUTE!

I love babies.
I love their fresh baby smell (I'm not too fond of the dirty diaper smell though).
I love the cooing sounds they make.
I love how they get excited and start kicking like crazy.
I love how they drool on everything.
I love how peaceful they look when they are sleeping.
I love their innocence.
I also love to give them back to their parents when I'm done ogling them!







"A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men." ~ Martin Fraquhar Tupper

Just Around the Corner

Spring! Yup, it's just around the corner (I hope)! Today I happened to look at my flower bed as I was pulling into my driveway, and lo and behold, the Tulips are starting to sprout! Just a few, but, none the less, they are there! I'm so excited! There have been a few other signs of Spring too. As I'm typing this it is raining! Yes, raining! Yippee! Unfortunately it's suppose to turn to snow, but for now it's raining! I hope it just rains and I hope it rains all night. I love the sound of rain pattering on my window!

Another sign of Spring that I saw today was the owner of the BQ Corral getting things ready for opening (they close from September/October to May)! The BQ is Lusk's version of Dairy Queen (kind of) and the ice cream is FABULOUS! Everything there is really good, but the twist cone is to die for!

Bring on SPRING!




"It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!" ~Mark Twain

"Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer." ~Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

Eggs-perimenting

This is rather late, but I've been pretty busy this week. Oh yeah, do you like the title? Cheesy, I know, but it fit the topic pretty well and I thought it was pretty clever (especially for me)! :) Pacen and I dyed eggs on Saturday. We did a little experimenting (eggs-perimenting) this year. We put rubber bands around some of the eggs and then dyed them. We also played around with the clear crayon that came with the dye. We ended up with some pretty cool looking eggs!

Pacen asked me to draw a peace sign on an egg for him so when I did I wrote "Love" on the other side. He didn't know it until he dyed it and when he saw it he said, "Mom! Why did you write 'Love' on the back!" Then he rolled his eyes and let out a big sigh. Apparently he's getting to the age where being "mushy" is not "cool", especially if it's your mom who's being "mushy".

So, I believe there is no such thing as kids dyeing eggs without dyeing themselves too. Pacen's hands were a dirty green color right off the bat! They just got darker and dirtier looking as we dyed more and more eggs. Actually, this year his hands didn't end up nearly as dyed as I've seen them before! Maybe it's because his hands are bigger and don't go all the way in the dye like they did when he was little. Or maybe it's because he's more careful now that he's 8. Yeah, okay, I'm going with the first thought! :)

Mmmm, cake balls!

Yup, you heard right! Cake balls! I came across cake balls a few weeks ago on this blog. Bakerella is absolutely amazing! Check out how talented she is! I wish I had half of her talent when it comes to baking (and photography)!

Anyway, the cake balls sounded absolutely mouth watering, and last night I had some time, so I devoted it to cake balls (actually, I should've been doing homework)! I made Easter cake balls. The recipe calls for boxed Red Velvet Cake, but I decided to make them with a Chocolate Cake from scratch. I got the Chocolate Cake recipe from the instruction booklet that came with the KitchenAid stand mixer that Kurtis gave me for Christmas. It was good! It took a lot of willpower to keep myself from eating all the batter! Well, here is the recipe for the cake balls and below is the recipe for the Chocolate Cake.

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup low-fat milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened chocolate, melted

Combine dry ingredients in mixer bowl. Add shortening, milk, and vanilla. Attach bowl and flat beater to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 (low speed for you non-KitchenAid mixer owners) and mix for about 1 minute. Stop and scrape bowl. Add eggs and chocolate. Continuing on Speed 2, mix about 30 seconds. Stop and scrape bowl. Turn to Speed 6 (medium speed) and beat about 1 minute.

Pour batter into two greased and floured 8- or 9-inch round baking pans (I used a 9x13x2 cake pan). Bake at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack. Frost if desired.


As you can see I got a little carried away when I was drizzling the left over bark on the balls! :)






"A cake is a very good test of an oven: if it browns too much on one side and not on the other, it's not your fault - you need to have your oven checked." ~ Delia Smith

Cupcakes and Sushi

I decided since it is April Fool's day I would fix a special supper. I made cupcakes for the main dish and sushi for dessert. Seriously. I did. I know what you're thinking. "What kind of mother would fix dessert for the main dish and raw fish for dessert?" Well, I would. I'm cool like that, plus I LOVE sushi!

APRIL FOOL'S! :) Okay, the part where I LOVE sushi is not a prank, but the rest is. I actually made meatloaf cakes with mashed potato frosting. Pacen seriously thought he was getting a cupcake for supper. You should've seen the look on his face! He was only slightly bummed when he realized it was meatloaf. I think the bright colors of the "frosting" made the meatloaf better for him. He acted the opposite when I brought out the sushi. He's not a big fan of sushi so he was kind of bummed when I first brought it out, but when he realized it was actually Twinkies, gummy worms, and fruit roll ups he got really excited.

Here is the recipe for the Cupcakes. They were actually very delicious. Here is the recipe for the Sushi. I accidentally bought Batman Fruit Roll Ups so there are black pictures on my sushi, but they were still pretty good. I was a little leery to try them (I'd rather have the real thing), but I was pleasantly surprised when I finally did try one.

Here's what they look like (my pictures aren't very good - weird tint and I'm not good enough at Photoshop yet so I couldn't figure out how to fix it).






"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." ~Abraham Lincoln