Skinny Alfredo With a Side of 30 Day Shred

Tonight's dinner is served. Unfortunately there are no pictures with tonights dinner... so just imagine this :)

I love pasta, as stated in almost EVERY blog post on here, but I also love fitting into my skinny jeans without a "muffin top" to accompany them. So of course I have to figure out how to make a yummy buttery cream filled meal into a gourmet tasting skinny delicious meal that the Hubs will still eat! And bonus points for making it dairy free... Thank you Thank you! But seriously, do you know how much dairy we consume a day!?! Oh by the way, Veggie Spreads are NOT, I repeat, are NOT dairy free even though the package says lactose free. The difference between dairy free and lactose free is that dairy free can not have any trace of dairy in it i.e. lactose, whey, caseins anything!!! Lactose free only has to have no lactose... that one bit us in the ass. Well it bit the Hubs in the ass :( poor guy.

So anyways back to tonights amazing meal. It is as follows:

Skinny Alfredo (Dairy Free)

1 Tablespoon      olive oil
1 Each                garlic clove minced

1 teaspoon          lemon zest

2 teaspoons         gluten free flour <3 Red Mills Gluten Free Flour

1 Cup                 Almond Milk <3 Blue Diamond

2 Tablespoons    Faux Cream Cheese <3 Tofutti is my FAVORITE!!! 

3/4 Cup              Parmesan Cheese grated (For the non dairy free people)

3 Tablespoons    Fresh Parsley chopped

12 Ounces          Whole Wheat fettuccine (gluten free pasta insert here)

TT                      Fresh ground pepper

On the back burner have a large pot of water, highly salted (think kissing your lover at the beach salty) and BOILING, just in case you missed that on the box,  and add your pasta to it. Let cook per instructions on the back of the box. The way it was explained to me was, "They paid billions of dollars for those directions, I think they know what they're talking about." and I agree. 

Now for the saucy sauce, start by heating up a pan, this will be the pan you make the sauce in so make sure it's deep enough, and adding your olive oil to it. Once the oil is heated add your garlic and lemon zest to it. Heat until the garlic is aromatic, about 30-60 seconds. If you don't "sweat" it enough the garlic wont release the oils properly into the sauce but if you sweat it too much you're going to have some burnt garlic on your hands :) yuuuummm. Add the flour to the oil and stir until it becomes a paste. Once this happens cook it, while stirring constantly, for about a minute. Ideally you'll start to smell a nut aroma which will indicate that you are cooking the flour so it wont taste like there is flour in your sauce. After that minute whisk in the milk and about a teaspoon of salt. NOTE: When you mix heated flour, oil and milk together you are making a roux, which is a thickening agent for sauces. It's the classic way for getting rich, thick, creamy sauces. If you do not whisk enough when adding the milk you will get lumps of flour in the sauce which is bad. So do it right! 

After you add your milk keep whisking for about 3 minutes or until it begins to get thick like you're used to seeing. Add your faux cream cheese and your Parmesan cheese now and continue whisking. Please please please do not just dump all your cheese in at once. Add it in sections so you can whisk until melted and then add some more. You will have clumpy Alfredo sauce if you dump it all in at once. Once all the cheese is melted, stir in your chopped parsley. Set to the side, cover to keep the heat in.

Reserve 1 cup of pasta water from the noodles. strain your noodles and place in a large bowl for tossing. Add the Alfredo sauce and start tossing, this is where you can add the pasta water to loosen the pasta dish up if it's too thick. Serve with extra Parmasean cheese to the dish and top with some yummy grilled chicken!

Bon Appetit Family!

Hahaha you thought I forgot didn't you! Here are the "Before" pictures from my 30 day shred challenge starting tonight. Also, this morning I began my sweets fast annnnnd then my beloved husband brought me a Twix for lunch... luckily I forgot the Twix bar (and the rest of my lunch) at the laundry mat. Lame.

My lovely love handles that I do not love :)

Yeah look at that muscle.... orrrr not.

And the back fat... ugh

Ok challenge on, see the new photos in 30 days! Shout out to all the ladies doing this challenge with me, can't wait to see your "after" pictures! Also, guys, you can get some Jillian lovin' in too ;)