Healthy Fettuccine Alfredo

My sister found a recipe for 'cauliflower sauce'. The blogger raved about it and used it with just about everything - as a white sauce for pizza, in some rice dish, and as a healthy option to fettuccine Alfredo.

We used this recipe as a start, but as per usual my sister and I don't really like to follow recipes very closely.

Ingredients: 
- 1 medium-large head of cauliflower
- 8 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 cup of milk
- pinch of nutmeg, salt, pepper, tarragon (to taste)
- 1 large chicken breast (thyme, olive oil, garlic, lemon, salt and pepper)
- red pepper
- gruyere cheese
- fettuccine noodles

Directions: 
1. Chop chicken into bite size pieces. Marinate in olive oil, garlic (some of the garlic from the 8 cloves), lemon, salt and pepper.
2. Chop the cauliflower. Bring water to boil in a large pot and add cauliflower. Cook until cauliflower is soft, about 15 minutes.
3. In a large pan, brown chicken in a little butter (or olive oil).
4. When cauliflower is soft, transfer to a blender with 1/2 cup to 1 cup of the water. You may need to do it in batches depending on the size of the blender. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add 1/2 cup of milk. Puree until very smooth, about 5 minutes.
5. With the remaining water in the cauliflower pot, cook fettuccine.
5. Add chopped red peppers and the garlic to the pan with the chicken. Cook for a few minutes until the red peppers begin to soften.
6. Add the cauliflower sauce the the pan with the chicken, red peppers and garlic. Add More nutmeg, salt, pepper to taste. Add some tarragon. Add some gruyere cheese (maybe 1/2 cup). Stir until cheese is melted.
7. Combine cooked noodles and sauce. Enjoy!

It was pretty good! And you don't feel nearly as guilty eating it as you would eating a big bowl of fettuccine! It's very light!

Fancy Mac and Cheese

I've been pretty busy with exams recently so haven't had anytime to post anything. I haven't even been cooking fancy meals because I haven't had time. I only have 1 exam left and then I'm all done university! Scary stuff. When I look into my future (aka this summer), I foresee lots of fun dishes that I have bookmarked and I'm dying to try, so stay tuned!
I made this fancy mac and cheese 2 weeks ago with my sister at home in Toronto. It should be filed under 'close your eyes and don't pay attention to how much cheese you're adding'... if that were a file you kept. It had FIVE different cheeses in it: fontina, gruyere, parmesan, blue cheese and goat's cheese. So basically not healthy but unbelievably delicious. A treat to be saved for a rare occasion! The cheese sauce was delicious enough to eat with a spoon... but we totally didn't do that at all.

We followed the recipe pretty closely. Here were our changes:

• We didn't have macaroni so we used rigatoni. I think it would have worked out better if we used macaroni... the rigatoni noodles were too big.
• When roasting the mushrooms, we added garlic and fresh thyme to give the mushrooms more flavour. 
• We also added some fresh thyme to the onions while they were cooking. 
• We omitted the 1/2 and 1/2 cream because it already had enough fat and creaminess in it, we wanted to feel a little better about ourselves. 
• For the egg, we separated the egg yolks from the egg whites. We only used the egg yolks. 
• I can't remember exactly, but I believe we only baked it for 15-20 minutes. 

Monte Cristoe Sandwich

This is basically a fancy ham and cheese sandwich. I got the idea to make it from a website called myfridgefood.com by putting all the ingredients I had in the my fridge and then it telling me what I could make.

Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 1 and 1/2 tsp milk
- pepper & thyme
- 2 slices of bread
- thinly sliced black forrest ham
- cheese of your choice (I used cheddar)
- mayonaise
- dijon

Instructions:
1. Beat egg, milk, some pepper and some thyme in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Assemble sandwich: spread desired amount of mayonaise and dijon (you can omit one or both if you don't like them) on each slice of bread. Cover each slice of bread with cheese and put the ham as the middle layer. Put the slices together.
3. Begin melting a slice of butter in a pan over medium heat.
4. Soak sandwich in egg mixture while keeping the sandwich together (like if you were making french toast).
5. Fry sandwich in the butter like you were making grilled cheese. Sandwich is done when it is nicely toasted and the cheese has melted.

It is surprisingly filling for one sandwich!

Black Bean, Corn and Chicken Quesadillas

Original recipe from this website. Their original version is vegetarian (with the possibility of becoming vegan with the removal of cheese).

I really like cheese, so there was no way I was omitting that. And I, at first, thought the quesadilla would be missing something without chicken. The addition of the chicken was wonderful, but I would still have eaten it without the chicken!

Ingredients: in order of appearance...
servings: two quesadillas
- 1/3 cup frozen corn kernels (thawed or slightly thawed)
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1/3 chopped onion (purple or white, I used white)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic (approximately 2 cloves)
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (I used closer to 3/4 teaspoon... next time may even add 1 teaspoon)
- 1/3 cup black beans (from a can)
- 1/3 cup diced tomato
- 2 teaspoons lime juice
- salt
- 2 flour tortillas (plain or whole wheat, original recipe says to use 8-inch tortillas, I used 'large' tortillas... I'm not sure how many inches they were)
2/3 cup cheddar cheese (this is the one ingredient I didn't measure because I love cheese and did not want to be limited)

If adding chicken to your quesadilla...
- 1/2 uncooked chicken breast, cut into small thin pieces (a whole chicken breast will work too, I just didn't want the quesadilla to get too full)
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- squeeze of lime juice

Instructions:
1. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot, about 2 minutes.
2. Add the corn and cook, stirring occasionally, until the kernels begin to brown slightly (approximately 3-5 minutes); transfer to medium sized bowl.
3. Heat 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil in now-empty skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, approximately 3 minutes.
4. Add garlic and chili powder and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute; stir in beans and tomato and cook until heated through, about 1 minute.
5. Return corn to the skillet and toss to combine for about 1 minute. Transfer mixture to empty bowl. Stir in lime juice and season with salt.
6. If using chicken... Mix chicken, chili powder, garlic, and lime juice in a bowl. Heat 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in original pan over medium heat. Add chicken to pan and cook until done, mixing around to cook all sides, approximately 5 minutes. Add to bowl with bean and corn mixture.
7. Carefully wipe out skillet with paper towels and return to medium heat. After hot, add 1 tortilla and toast until soft and puffed slightly at edges, approximately 2 minutes. Flip and do the same to the other side.
8. Remove first tortilla from skillet and replace second tortilla and repeat above step.
9. With the removed tortilla on a plate or clean surface, sprinkle shredded cheese and 1/2 the bean/corn/chicken mixture on half the tortilla, leaving 1/2-inch border around the edge. Top with a little more cheese and fold.
10. Put folded quesadilla in skillet over medium heat and allow to crisp. After about 1-2 minutes, carefully flip over to crisp the other side.
11. Cut and enjoy!