Alfredo Sauce: Healthy or Heart Attack?

 Give this girl a bucket of pasta and I am a happy camper.  But that's not something I can do anymore.  On a low carb diet, minding my blood sugar at all times, pasta and pasta dishes are a thing to AVOID.  Flipping through my handy Taste of Home Cookbooks, I stumbed onto a recipe for an easy chicken alfredo dish.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good alfredo!  But I'm tired of doing the chicken route all the time.  So, as you can tell from the pictures, we did NOT use chicken.  I like to try new things.  We substituted turkey sausage for the chicken to give it a bite.  And then I used a rotini pasta, whole grain of course, instead of the boring fettuccine noodles.  So that is the disclaimer of this review.  The main review is of the sauce.

Ease of Making:
This sauce is super quick to make!  One of the fastest alfredo sauces I have ever made.  It has some really strange ingredients that I thought would make it taste strange, but we'll get that that later!  The ingredients were super easy to acquire, except for butter sprinkles.  I didn't even know people sold those anymore.  I just substituted margarine, because I honestly could not find it.  The other issue I had was finding sun-dried tomatoes wthat were not packed in oil.  There was no options.  So if you really don't want the oil, just rinse them off!  Then pop it into the food processor, or blender in my case, microwave and dinner is served!  I give this recipe an A- for easy makings!

Likeability: 
I was a little apprehensive about this recipe at first, because first off, my middle son HATES pasta.  And some of these ingredients are strange to be in an alfredo sauce.  Cottage cheese?  Really, in a pasta sauce?  Gross?  But I kept an open mind!  Olives?  NO!  I would rather not eat an olive and I knew that my kids would be very angry if they found one in their food.  I minced those instead of slicing them, because otherwise it was going to be a battle of the table.  So how did it go over?  The kids LOVED it!  Talk about total shocker to me!  My middle son, the proclaimed pasta hater, asked for seconds!  I couldn't believe it. 

This sauce is not like most other alfredo sauces I have had.  It is thicker and wraps around the pasta.  If you use a rotini, like I did, it almost seems like the pasta is made of the sauce.  The sauce is not too rich, or over-loaded with flavor.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good rich pasta sauce, but one that is too over-bearing will definitely not appeal to this family.  So for all three of my kids scarfing it down and I adored it, this is a likeability A+!

Diet Healthy or Heart Attack:
This is a great recipe for those watching both their carb intake and their calories.  Can you believe it only has 343 calories per serving and only 38 carbs?  Thats insanely low for a pasta recipe!  The recipe was fresh, light and did not make me feel guilty for eating it!  It was a really perfect pasta dish!  This scores an A+ for staying within the requirements of an entree.

Overall this dish is a fabulous dish for a quick night fix or if you're making somthing special for your and the other half.  This dish is so easy, even people who do not excel in the kitchen would have difficulty messing it up!  I would say one thing that I did differently, is that I did not feel comfortable putting the sauce in the microwave to cook.  I think that it really belongs on the stove.  The other issue is that you need to make sure that you have enough ingredients for more than two servings.  This recipe is meant for ONLY two servings, which almost threw me off.  I'm a bit quicker on my feet when it comes to cooking, but I could see how this could throw others.  Also again, please use whole grain pasta.  I have come to notice that many cookbooks do not advocate the use of whole grain pastas.  Please do, its a healthier choice.  For me this dish scores a total A.
New Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook
Easy Chicken Alfredo
Ingredients
3 ounces uncooked fettuccine
1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese
3 tablespoons evaporated milk
1 tablespoon butter-flavored sprinkles (feel free to use margarine, I did)
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1/8 teaspoon coarsley ground pepper
3/4 cup cubed chicken breast
2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
1 tablespoon sliced ripe olives

Directions:
1.  Cook fettuccine according to the package directions.  Meanwhile in a small food processor, combine cottage cheese, evaporated milk, butter sprinkles, and garlic; cover and process until smooth.
2.  Transfer to a microwave-safe bowl.  Stir in the Parmesan cheese, parsley, and pepper.  Add the chicken, tomatoes and olives.  Cover and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes or until heated through.  Drain fettuccine; serve with chicken mixture.

Yields 2 servings
Nutritional facts: 3/4 cup pasta with 2/3 cup chicken mixture equals 343 calories, 7 grams fat, 54 mg cholesterol, 770 mg sodium, 38 gram carbohydrates, 2 gram fiber, 32 gram protein.