Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms - Credit: smittenkitchen.com
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Spinach Pasta - Credit: frecklesinapril.com
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Homemade Alfredo Sauce - Credit: 100daysofrealfood.com
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INGREDIENTS:
Mushrooms:
- Mushrooms
- Capers
- Garlic
- Olive Oil
- Butter
- Lemon
- Parsley
Pasta:
- Spinach
- Whole wheat flour
- Egg
Alfredo:
- Butter
- Whipping cream
- Fresh parmesan cheese
- Salt & pepper
The mushrooms were easy ... and very similar to the recipe I'd just made in looks but different in taste.
As the recipe promised they taste just like "steak house mushrooms" - yummy! I did wish I had a fresh french baguette to soap up the juices ... but clearly that is NOT whole wheat or real so not on my diet. Plus this meal was filling enough without adding anything else! I'd planned to make a side salad too but I just couldn't eat more.
The spinach ... was not as easy as it looked. Kicker was the recipe called for a bread maker and I don't have one. I didn't notice this until too late so had to improvise. I googled what the "dough" cycle on a bread maker does and it seems to be just adding water and kneading. So I guessed and added water ... whoops! Too much water - not dough. So I added more whole wheat flour until it stuck together in my Cuisinart similar to how the dough does for the home-made tortillas I've learned to make. It was still a little sticky but I kneaded it throwing in more flour before I rolled it out ... then just sliced it up with a pizza cutter. Here it is drying on the counter.
So after the waiting time to let it "dry" I put them in the water. Getting them from the counter to the water told me I still didn't use enough flour because they were still quite sticky ... but I made it. Some not so pretty but then I'm not sure they would have been pretty even so ... I guess I would say that they look ... um, okay fine I'll just say it ... like leeches in a pot of water.
Very thick as they cooked ... not at all what I'd think of as spaghetti or even linguine ... more like thick egg noodles. They did separate in the water though and didn't stick together which was a win! As I put them in I worried they'd just end up one big globule of green goo.
So as the mushrooms roasted and the pasta cooked I started the Alfredo sauce. Butter, cream ... not exactly a "light" dinner tonight! I had no idea Alfredo sauce was so simple with so few ingredients. Though I'm kind of glad I didn't know because figuring out how to make this earlier would have meant LOTS of 'easy' dinners of white store bought pasta with this sauce. Yikes - talk about fattening!
Mix it all together and you have ...
Leeches in cream sauce! Okay ... so no it doesn't exactly look yummy but trust me ... it was VERY yummy. Comfort food to say the least. Incredibly rich and filling. I was stuffed! So much for portion control. I thought I'd done okay but I probably could have used 1/2 as much of both the pasta and the mushrooms. Here are my portions:
The pasta is in a bowl that is about the size of a regular dinner plate. The mushrooms in a larger cereal bowl. Not even close to the portions I would have used in the past ... I'd have filled that bowl with pasta to the blue line - forget still begin able to see some of the bottom of the bowl!
Come to think of it ... here's the pasta I had not too long ago in the same size dish ... about 2x as much as tonight.
Same thing with the mushrooms. Now that seems like so much food ... and even this feels like way too much because it is simply just so filling. I can see why so many of the materials I've read talk about how the regular American diet gets a lot of food but not a lot of nutrition ... your body is still hungry because it still isn't getting what it needs. My body is sending me a whole different message now!
All three recipes worth trying!
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I'd love to know you visited and what you think! I'm also thankful for any ideas, tips or suggestions as I'm still learning to cook and to live a real / whole foods lifestyle.