My dad makes dinner every night. There are very few occasions where he’s out and my sister L and I are left home alone. A lot of times he makes extras of dinner the night before so we just have to reheat it. But I love it when he leaves the meal decisions up to L and me. L likes to stick to her Kraft mac and cheese, but I always jump at the opportunity to make something that I know my family won’t like. (Translation: vegetarian). In general, I don’t make things with meat because I hate touching raw meat and I’m afraid of food poisoning. But these are my chances to experiment making some real food (shocking, isn’t it?) I’m not out to make something sous vide or tuna tartare. My food ideas generally fit these categories: vegetarian and homey. My first idea was something with beans, like lentil burgers, but I was not in the mood to watch a pot of beans boil (that, and I’m in the middle of quarter exams right now…details). So I decided to make an alfredo sauce. Except, I didn’t know how to make an alfredo sauce. Then I found out that it’s basically melted cream, cheese, and butter. Sounds delicious, right? No. I’m not a fan of those meals where I feel insanely guilty after eating it (does that change my eating habits? not really). So I opted for a cream sauce. After reading about 10 different recipes, I came up with this one. I poured it over some Japanese soba noodles (they’re a dark colored buckwheat noodle that cooks in about 6 min.) I don’t have pictures because my dad took the camera out with him, and the pile of noodles did not look apetizing and no amount of light could have fixed it. I may have put too much chicken bullion, and it was a little too salty because of it so next time I’ll cut it down. Other than that, I liked it. It was creamy and held up well with the soba. So watch the saltiness carefully.
Yogurt-Cream Sauce
adapted from Self
Ingredients:
1 tsp oil
some veggies, thinly sliced (as much as you want, really. I had 1 shredded carrot and about 2 in of an onion)
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 cup nonfat chicken broth (I used water and some bullion, but I didn’t read the proportions so I added too much)
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 cup fresh basil, or 2 dashes of dried
2 tbsp reduced fat parmesean cheese (I didn’t add any, didn’t need to)
1 tbsp light cream
salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
Cook pasta as directed. Drain and set aside.
Heat oil, add veggies. Reduce heat to low and cook until almost tender.
Add broth and cook until tender, 3-4 minutes.
Remove from heat and mix in rest of ingredients.
Toss and serve.
Tonight, dad went out to dinner with some friends. L broke out the Kraft and I made..